Throughout the course of our lives, we’re constantly trying to impress someone.

As kids, we want our parents to be proud of us. We want our friends to think we’re cool. We want our teachers to think we’re smart.

As we get older, we still want our parents to be proud of us. We still want our friends to think we’re cool. And now, instead of teachers, we want our colleagues and clients to think we’re smart.

Then, one day we wake up and realize we’re spending most of our waking hours trying to live up to someone else’s expectations. We’re spending more time trying to make everyone else happy than we are on meeting our own needs. We’re not necessarily unhappy, but we’re unfulfilled.

Depending on how we choose to look at it, that unfulfilled feeling can be a blessing or a curse. We can either let it spiral out of control into a deep depression or, hopefully, we can choose to use it as a wake up call.

To determine if your life needs a slight course correction, ask yourself the following questions:

“Whose life am I living?”

You only have one life to live, you might as well make it your own.

“Am I being selfish enough?”

You can’t take care of others if you’re not taking care of yourself.

To have any chance at spreading sustained happiness to others, it’s vital to make sure that YOU are happy. From time to time, do a check-in to make sure that YOUR needs are getting met so that YOU are able to continue to meet the many needs of all the important people in YOUR life.