Recognize what you were given and use it

When you look to your past, you may feel grateful or broken-hearted, depending on what you believe you were given or deprived of in those early years.

Realize though, that for everything that you were given, you were deprived of something else, and for everything you were deprived of, you received something else instead.

If you received encouragement, you were deprived of discovering self-worth, independent of external validation of others. Those who grew up in a non-encouraging environment are perceived to be utterly fearless. But the truth is, they were given an early opportunity to develop.

Those who were given encouragement must develop independent self-worth in adulthood. They are prone to bending over backwards in an attempt to try to please an unpleasable boss or spouse, as the concept of disapproval is so very foreign to them.

So is it better to give a child no encouragement? Of course not. But if you happen to be an adult in despair over not receiving any, recognize your gift, and use it well. You can't change the past, so you may as well take everything positive that it gave you and apply those gifts --no matter how painful they once were-- to your present and future happiness.

That's the only way to make them all worthwhile.

-Doe Zantamata

Learn how to recognize, train, and use your Intuition in Doe's book: