Living someone else's life

A number of years ago I was sitting in a workshop on spirituality. In one of the activities I was directed to go inward and revisit my life at each decade point. I was to be a quiet observer of what my life looked like at that point and whether or not it was where I wanted to be. It didn't take long to realize that the majority of my life had been spent following the path that someone else had charted for me. This included my parents, grandparents, teachers, and significant others. I recall this in particular when I was entering college and was clueless on what to study. I began my college program with a major my mother suggested and absolutely no idea as to what was involved and what my future would look like doing this. Needless to say my grades that semester reflected that choice. When I decided to change my major to Psychology, my mother quickly voiced her disappointment in me. Of course my mother had no experience at the university level, so I was merely living out the life she missed before I made the change. By the time I visited age 50 in my exercise, I began to weep over all those years when I was trying to please someone else. Once I made the decision to live the life I chose, my feelings were very different around my present and future. Life became more exciting and I became open to new ways of experiencing the world. What I thought of myself became much more important than what the people around me thought of my life's direction. How have you been living someone else's life today?