It’s not your job to make other people happy. I know you may feel like is some days, but I am here to tell you that you are fired from this responsibility. I don’t care who you are - a husband, a wife, a parent, a friend, an employer - it is not your job, and you can’t do it.
When we make it our job to make others happy, we actually rob the other person of what they need, important and essential things. We take away the job of caring for themselves. We remove their option to choose which emotion they will feel, including unhappiness. We are basically telling them they are not actually capable of providing joy for themselves.
We may choose to take this “job” on out of love, but it is a blind love that does not clearly see the impact we are having on the person we care so much about. Often resentment and frustration will arise in this type of a relationship. The pressure to always be happy, to always feel ok will manifest into an anger that often is confusing.
So you’re fired......trust me you will thank me later! Instead, let’s put our energy into helping those we care about to see they are capable of feeling their own emotions. Let’s relieve the pressure to always be happy. Let’s empower others to feel that they can comfort themselves and ask us to care for them in the ways they want to be cared for.
It’s not your job to make others happy; it never was. It’s their job to take care of themselves, and it’s our job to ask how we can be helpful, comforting and empowering.
