I Didn't Have Any Trouble Stopping Believing in Santa

In recent years I've realized that I had a lot of beliefs that I acquired as a child that are not true at all.  I doubt that anyone actually taught them to me.  It was just stuff I picked up that my child's mind formed into a belief.  It turns out that none of it is true.  And because it's not true, trying to live by those beliefs made my life very difficult and often painful.

I believed that:

• it was possible to make other people happy.
• I was supposed to do everything "right" and then I would have no problems.
• the way to solve problems was to find out who was to blame and yell at them and complain to other people.
• the way to get people to like me was to always do everything they wanted me to do.
• the way to have prestige was to dress perfectly and look perfect.
• I would be happy as soon as I got everything I wanted.
• Being single meant you were unwanted.
• The purpose of life was to acquire as much money as possible.

There are so many other beliefs that were kind of unconscious but ran my life that I can't possibly list them all.  It has been extraordinarily hard to get rid of them.  Which is kind of odd since they are so clearly wrong.  Just like it's really clear that there's no such thing as Santa Claus or the tooth fairy, and I let go of those beliefs without any trouble as soon as I got old enough to think clearly.