You’ve Got To Please Yourself!

In his hit song “I Went to a Garden Party,” 1960‘s pop singer and heart throb, Ricky Nelson, said, “It's all right now, I learned my lesson well. You see, ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself!” 



Throughout our lives we meet and associate with many different types of people . . . people navigating all “walks of life,” as the old cliché goes. As we encounter bumps and bruises along life’s rocky path, it’s tough not to judge other people’s actions . . . it’s even more difficult not to judge ourselves. While other’s will automatically form their own opinions about each of us, at the end of the day we are alone with ourselves, deciding “who we really are” and “who we want to become.” 



In his book, “The Christmas Sweater,” author, Glen Beck, suggests that instead of asking, “WHAT” we want to be when we grow up . . . People should really ask “WHO” do you want to be when you grow up? What kind of person do we want to become?

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We can choose to live with honor, integrity, and self respect, or we can choose not to. We can decide to change and become better, or we can remain the same. It is all up to us. We are free to choose for ourselves. And while it’s easy to blame others for our present circumstances, in reality, as grown-ups, no one can make us do anything we don’t really want to do. In a sense, each of us is our own best critic and despite our blind spots, we know more about ourselves than anyone else does. We’ve been living with ourselves for a very long time. 



When we truly open our hearts with love and sincerity, seeking truth, we can see both our strengths and weaknesses—our accomplishments and the areas where we need improvement. Instead of avoiding the truth about ourselves, we should look ourselves “straight in the eye” as the well-known “people’s poet,” Edgar A. Guest, wrote almost a century ago:



Myself


By Edgar Albert Guest



I have to live with myself, and so


I want to be fit for myself to know;


I want to be able, as days go by,


Always to look myself straight in the eye.


I don’t want to stand, with the setting sun,


And hate myself for things I have done.



I don’t want to keep on a closet shelf


A lot of secrets about myself,


And fool myself, as I come and go,


Into thinking that nobody else will know


The kind of man I really am;


I don’t want to dress up myself in sham.



I want to go out with my head erect,


I want to deserve all men’s respect;


But here in this struggle for fame and pelf,


I want to be able to like myself.


I don’t want to think as I come and go


That I’m bluster and bluff and empty show.



I never can hide myself from me;


I see what others may never see;


I know what others may never know,


I never can fool myself—and so,


Whatever happens, I want to be


Self-respecting and conscience free.