Life on this planet comes with its share of fear.  Living with a condition that could take your life without a safety net of medications ratchets things ups a bit.  Internal fear is something you can deal with by changing perspective, intentionally facing and working o overcome it.  But when the fear is coming from someone else it is a lot harder to stay positive and follow your dreams.  Everyone has their own good reason for being afraid.  Your doctors want to make sure your disease is well manged so they are seen as “good” doctors, avoid law suits, and maximize their reimbursement (yes there is some cynicism there).  Your parents love you to pieces and feel helpless to make sure you are OK.  Those that depend on you need you to be there, so they are OK.  But honestly, no one is really thinking they are dumping their fear on you.  They “want” you to be OK for many good and right reasons.  It is unintentional.

Your real job

Even though the intent is not negative and usually with your best interests at heart (well maybe except for the group that is depending on you – they really have theirbest interests at heart, but they don’t see it that way), the result is that you get weighed down with other peoples worries.  It can be a full time job to “be” a certain way so other people are not so afraid.  Perfect diet, perfect blood sugars, perfect performance.  In the midst of attempting perfection and preventing someone else’s worry (which you can’t), many of your dreams get put on the sidelines.  You can live like this for a while, but at some point you will resent having to do “all this” with little recognition of how hard it is.  And you will begin to regret all the things you didn’t do, experience, or try while you were busy making other people feel better.

If this feels familiar, try these steps: 1) Make a list of what you would do if you didn’t have to fix everyone else (that is your truth).  2) Prioritize the most important.   3) Challenge yourself daily to notice whose dreams you are following.   3) Do something to move you closer to #1 on your list.  5) Repeat.  Your job is not to fix everyone else on the planet.  Your job is to do you.

Peace,