Live as if your father were dead.

Unconsciously in the father-son relationship, there are strong expectations that the son feels towards his father. We try to make our father proud as he should be our representative of masculinity and he makes us feel it and tries to transmit to us this ambition to accomplish himself as a man.

The problem is that sometimes the expectations are too high for the young man and we tend not to follow our real aspirations to satisfy our father. Unfortunately, this is when we start to direct our energy not in the fulfillment of our own essence, but only to satisfy our father. And this is counterproductive and will never make us happy.

Living as if our father was dead is a way to separate ourselves from the fear of not satisfying the desires and opinions of our entourage and especially this form of pressure that we have towards our father. It is only once we have freed ourselves from this feeling and that we follow our essence and the fulfillment of our personal gift that we will make our loved ones proud in the long run, much more than they could have imagined. And if they are not satisfied, the important thing is to accomplish ourselves and our own happiness above all.

Sources : The way Of the superior man, David Deida.