Strong women are able to find their own happiness. All you need is you. For a long time, I had the tendency to put other people on a pedestal.
I had high hopes and expectations for boyfriends, best friends and even my waiters at Chili’s. People were supposed to care about my feelings and not do anything that would hurt me. So when they naturally failed to do so, I was left feeling very disappointed.
When you put the responsibility for your happiness in the hands of other people, you will always be let down.
Think about how hard it is for you to make yourself happy sometimes. There are days where a smile seems nearly impossible, and all you can do is lay in bed.
Read: 10 Reasons Why Most Men Find It Difficult To Handle Strong Women
If you can’t bring yourself out of those kinds of funks, how can you expect someone else to?
Logically, we get that, but we still unintentionally do it all the time. When we exchange numbers with a cute guy, we expect him to text us the next day. And if he doesn’t, we get annoyed.
“Like doesn’t he know that the only way I’m going to be happy today is if he sends me a good morning text??”
No, no-no. No one should carry that much weight for somebody else. Not a boyfriend you’ve had for five years and definitely not someone you just met.
Read: Why Falling In Love Is SO DAMN HARD For Strong Women
Because here’s the slightly depressing truth: nobody is obligated to do anything for you.
Guys aren’t required to text you back within a certain amount of time. Your mom isn’t required to support every aspect of your career. Your boss isn’t required to reign you with compliments every single day.
Nobody has to do anything for you, and you can let that make you sad and bitter or you can let it set you free.
Because once you realize that you and you alone are responsible for getting you out of that funk and back to being happy, you start to take control. You stop waiting for other people to surprise and you start surprising yourself. You give up trying to make people understand and accept them anyway.
And one of the best things that comes from trusting yourself with your happiness is that when people let you down — because they always will — it doesn’t bother you as much. You’re more empathetic to their own struggles and downfalls because you’ve been there. You’re quick to forgive and forget and focus more on what makes life good.
Taking control of your life is essentially also letting go. Know that no matter what happens, you have your own back.
Strong women take charge of their own happiness.
And you’ll never let yourself fall.
Written by Emily Blackwood
Originally appeared on Yourtango.com
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