Do you deserve it or not?

August, the long-awaited holidays, the holidays you dreamed of for months, are finally here. Soon you will be happily free from the routines that mark your weeks and for a short time you will perhaps feel more alive. You have worked, struggled and suffered and now you deserve a break, you deserve rest, lightness and fun. 

Who does not think so? Who does not think it is necessary to suffer at least a little to deserve something? I did this for years. I could not conceive of a prize without previous sacrifice. I could not imagine the pleasure if not after the effort. I was absolutely conditioned to imagine that the more demanding and difficult the experience was, the more significant and valuable the final recognition would be.

Let me tell you, however, that this is not necessarily true. It is only one possibility. But if you believe in it and you choose it, your life will inevitably be influenced by effort and sacrifice. What you experience is what you believe is true for you.

Have you ever asked yourself what are the "rules" you believe to deserve something? When you want something you think you can have it or you need to deserve it? Do you have to do something to deserve it? Do you have to be better to deserve it? Will you ever be good enough to deserve what you want? Do you really think you do not deserve anything?

The answers to these questions are pure gold. Because they are the limits within which your life is unknowingly playing out. I know dozens of people who think they do not deserve anything, because they consider themselves guilty of innumerable shortcomings and, unfortunately, it is only their sense of guilt that keeps them stuck on the ground, preventing them from flying and achieving what they really want.

I have tasted satisfaction after a great effort, but I have also experienced the freedom of going on vacation just because I wanted to. And that is priceless. But to be able to appreciate it I had to change my convictions.

Changing your beliefs is the core of any transformation: you have to understand what belief you are giving the power to define the boundaries of your experience and then decide to choose something different.

The funniest thing I've learned to do in the last few years is to stop taking my mind seriously. The mind is an incredible tool, but it does not contain any absolute truth. The only real power it has is to define the limits within which I experience life, so if I want to live more and more intensely, it is necessary for me to constantly challenge it so as to move or modify these limits.

You do not deserve your holidays. You would deserve a life that is like a holiday, and if you really believe in this, your life could be exactly that.

(Pic courtesy Ishan for Unsplash)