Chocolate Banana Pudding… And Do You Suffer From Please Like Me Disease?

Best Banana Pudding Recipe with Cashew Butter : Here’s How.

There is one disease I forgot to mention I had in the past (or so I thought it was in the past).  It’s called please like me disease.  It’s painful and debilitating and the side effects are just horrible.  If you find yourself suffering from this dreaded disease, don’t despair!  Read on, there is help!

Wouldn’t you know it, just when you think an old habit is behind you, something happens in life and it rears it’s ugly head. For many (too many) years of my life I worried and fretted over what everyone thought of me and somebody not liking me was the end of the world.  Sound familiar to you?  The game changer for me was something I heard over a decade ago and that was all it would take to set me free.  And that is… 10% of people will not like me! Or you!  It doesn’t matter how nice you are to them, how giving, how funny, how smart, how helpful, they will not like you!  If you read my blog you have read about this important revelation before, and you will read it again and again because for me it was a life changer! If you suffer from please like me disease, I hope it also becomes your life changer.  Now, what do we do with this information?  Do we spend our energy proving to the 10% why they should like us?  Or does it sound less self destructive to spend our energy on the 90% that adore and cherish us?  So how did this old habit slip back in you ask?

Recently someone I knew demonstrated in a not so subtle way that they did not like me.  Did I brush it off and mentally put them in that 10% category and move on?  I did not.  Do you know what I found myself doing instead?  For about one week I set out to show this person they should like me.  See how nice I am?  See how cool, and funny, and flexible I am?  You don’t?  Then I need to try harder!  Then I gave myself a long hard look in the mirror and thought “what the heck are you doing Erin, you do not even LIKE this person you are trying so hard to convince to like you”!  At that point I remembered what I learned so many years ago and then I was able to neatly pack them away into my 10% file and walk away.  I had sweet freedom once again.

Here’s another thing I learned.  We tend to view these set backs in our life as negative (and of course we do, they hurt)!  But I learned to wait it out because something good almost always comes if you watch for it.  What good came out of this?  It made me more appreciative of my 90% that are for me.  I set out to strengthen those relationships as a result, and so in the end it was a blessing!  I heard a preacher talk about a particular palm tree that will completely bend over from the strength of  hurricane winds and just when you think that tree is dead it springs right back up.  The miraculous thing is once it has been bent in this fashion, it was proven that the tree was even stronger and sturdier as a result!  Much like we are from our adversities.

Here’s something else to keep in mind.  Those 10% are just the noisy clucking chickens.  Surround yourself with eagles and you will not care what the chickens think of you.  If you missed my story “Are you an Eagle or a Chicken” click here.