Thy name is ENTITLEMENT.
(Please note: I am on this journey with you. I’m not out there ahead someplace, I’m teaching what I need to learn.)
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Here’s what the first dragon has to say:
We have been spoiled in this great, rich, messily imperfect country. Many of us have come to feel that we are entitled to the things we want, well, just because we want them. We act as though some special heavenly dispensation should be granted. We should not have problems. We should not have struggles. We’re special.
Balderdash!
What we are, ladies, is damn lucky.
We have to do the work–and most of it is internal–in order to become the kind of people who live the kinds of lives we want. Nobody is going to wave a magic wand and make it so, so let’s stop waiting around for the fairy godmother to show up and make everything all right. That’s our job. Let’s define who we really want to be, and grow into that new skin. Deliberately. By choice.
The first thing on our agenda is to stop believing we’re entitled to anything more or less than what we have.
What we have, right now, today, corresponds to what we are, right now, today. We’ve earned it, for good or ill, by our thoughts, actions, and attitudes. It’s a hard truth, I know, but nonetheless true for that.
Are we too fat? Nobody put a gun to our heads and made us eat too much.
Do we wish we had a better job or more education? Nobody said, “Drop out of college and get married, or I’ll kill you.”
At every single moment of our lives, we are blessed with the power of choice. No, we can’t always choose what happens to us, because the people around us, not to mention world governments and other institutions, are busy making choices, too, and those choices affect us. That’s the reality. What we CAN do is choose how we respond. We can rant and rail, and look for the Cosmic Complaint Department, or we can stop and be grateful. We can stop and see where we are, and where we want to be, and we can make better choices.
On Monday, we’ll tackle Dragon #2.
In the meantime, are you writing those Morning Pages?
No excuses, now.
Write them. Dialogue with the dragon. Tell yourself the unvarnished truth.
It’s the only way to get off square one.
About Linda
The daughter of a town marshal, Linda Lael Miller is a #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than 100 historical and contemporary novels, most of which reflect her love of the West.
Raised in Northport, Washington, Linda pursued her wanderlust, living in London and Arizona and traveling the world before returning to the state of her birth to settle down on a horse property outside Spokane.
