To love and be loved:

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To love and be loved.

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That’s the goal.

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That’s the point.

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That’s the aim of life.

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To find love.

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To love something.

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Whether a pet.

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An activity.

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Or a person.

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You need to find love.

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Something to love.

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Something to enjoy.

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Something to give you purpose.

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We all need it.

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But it’s not just that.

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You need to be loved.

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You need to feel love.

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Whether from family.

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Friends.

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Or some random stranger on the street.

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We all need it.

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As Brene Brown has said ‘we’re all walking around with invisible signs on our chest saying ‘see me’’

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We all want to be seen.

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To be acknowledged.

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To be loved.

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We go about our lives searching for these.

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For something to love.

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And for something to love us back.

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Finding something to love is not as hard.

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The hardest is accepting it.

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We tell ourselves stories as to why we can’t be loved.

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Why we shouldn’t be loved.

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Why we’re not worthy of love.

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That love is attached to an outcome.

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Or goal.

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Or achievement.

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That’s wrong.

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We all deserve to be loved no matter what.

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No matter where we go.

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Or what we do.

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No matter how successful we become.

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Or how much of a failure we are.

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Everyone deserves love.

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The hardest part is giving it to yourself.

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Allowing yourself to be seen by you.

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To acknowledge yourself for getting here.

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For showing up.

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For doing the work.

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I’ve been battling this recently.

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This idea of acknowledging myself.

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Of celebrating what I’ve done.

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Even if no one else does it, I need to do it.

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When you accomplish something for yourself, celebrate it.

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Make sure you do.

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Otherwise, you’ll miss your life.

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This past month, I hit two major milestones.

One - wrote my 1000th blog post.

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Two - closed my first deal.

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Yet after I accomplished both, I quickly moved on.

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Didn’t even think twice about it.

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It was only when a friend and my therapist said ‘wait’

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‘How are you celebrating?’

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I wasn’t even thinking of it beforehand.

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I was so focused on moving on to the next thing that I forgot.

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I forgot to celebrate.

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So I booked a nice restaurant for myself and a friend who was also celebrating something.

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Now that’s a memory I’ll have forever.

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Enjoying something I love with someone I love.

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That’s what it’s all for.

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Who cares how much you accomplish if you can’t enjoy it with people you love?

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That’s what I’ve realized.

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To love and be loved.

That’s it.

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