How to know what I value...

http://www.livingauthentically.org/2011/11/the-path-to-a-satisfying-life/
Thanks to Evan for a wonderful article that had a series of half started sentences that can help me evaluate what I value.  What is important to me.  As I move past surviving and into thriving, this becomes more important.

• What did you just love doing as a child (younger than say 10-12y.o. Before analytic thought tends to kick in)?
• What sorts of things do you think about during idleness?
• Pick three things you love and three things you hate and look for similarities and differences.
• Imagine your perfect day or year.
• Imagine yourself in old age telling the story of your life.
• What is just so easy to do for you (that others inexplicably find difficult)?

Learning to create my own story becomes a challenge coming from a home where I was told what to do and feel each day.  If I expressed a sentiment different then expected, I was corrected.  I was punished for feeling angry, told that I had to eat certain foods even if they made me sick, I was not allowed to own my feelings.   As I started discovering my own likes and dislikes this opened a world of opportunities that I didn't even know existed.  I remember the first time my counselor asked me, "What do you want?"  I was puzzled.  This just hadn't occurred to me as an option.  When KavinCoach coaxed what brings you happiness.  My reaction was angry.  I didn't say anything at the session but the following week I brought back an almond Joy bar with huge fish hook sticking through it.  I let him know that for me anything I wanted had a hook.  It was used to manipulate me.  I had no concept of asking for and receiving something I asked just because I asked for it.  I didn't know what I liked.  I had not done the teenage exploration that is supposed to be part of growing up.  Now I am experimenting.  I made Alfredo sauce from scratch.  (very yummy)  I am trying different types of exercises.  I am taking a rest from my photography to try to better understand what direction I want to go with my hobby.  I accepted that I do not want to become a professional photographer.  I do like sharing my love of photography.  I am starting to understand the massive loss of not being a teenager.  I was the designated care taker in the family.  The go-to person for my mother when she felt overwhelmed between her job and home.  I complied.  Did as I was told.  No growth happened when I should have rebelled and told my parents to go jump in a lake.  This process has a name, individuation, fancy word for finding out who I am.  Evan gave me some tools to use in the process.  I am a late bloomer but I am still growing.