Some of us must have a purpose in life to make our parents happy. Fulfilling parental expectations becomes a kind of benchmark for our success and happiness. However, what if in reality we have not been able to fulfill the hopes and desires of our parents?

Being a dutiful child is clearly a noble thing. It's just that life can go beyond expectations and plans. Not being able to make parents happy does make us disappointed, but that doesn't mean our lives will end in vain. It's time to toughen up again and live life with new joys.

1. Appreciate Your Own Struggle

Before blaming yourself even more or considering yourself useless, it's a good idea to take a moment to appreciate your own struggles first. We've done all the best in our lives. If something doesn't go according to plan, it doesn't mean it's entirely our fault. The courage to struggle and move with the best efforts in life has become a tremendous achievement for yourself.

2. Make Yourself Feel Comfortable

Disappointed, sad, angry, and upset can appear when we feel that we have failed to be a dutiful child. However, not being able to meet the expectations of parents does not mean we have no right to be happy. We can and can be happy. Instead we need to make ourselves feel comfortable and happy in our own way first so as not to blame the situation even more. When we are more comfortable with ourselves, we can more easily make changes to priorities in life.

3. Make peace with all the feelings present

Although it feels incredibly sad when there are parents' expectations that can't be fulfilled, but we need to make peace with our own emotions and feelings. To quote the book Caring for Emotional Wounds, "Unhappiness, sadness, or what we think of as negative feelings are not really the enemy. Sometimes sadness, anxiety, and disappointment are part of normal feelings." All the feelings that are present are valid, and become part of our process to become a wiser and stronger person.

4. Stick to the things you love

Instead of sinking into feelings of confusion or sadness for too long, it's better to take advantage of the time you have by pursuing things you still like. Not being able to meet all the expectations of parents does not mean that our lives have failed. Who knows in the future there will be new things that we can try and realize and give different pride to parents.

5. Take Care of Your Own Good Hope

Having hope will strengthen you. Even if there are parents' wishes that you can't fulfill, you still have the opportunity to live life the best version of yourself. Turn on your good hopes and focus on achieving things that you can still work on, then rest assured that there will be pleasant surprises in your life.
Thank you for trying to do all the best in your life so far, hopefully useful.

Reference sources :

Fimela