It’s entirely too often that I catch myself saying yes to people who would never bat an eye if I asked them for help, and caring far too much about what these people think of me. From a young age, we all learn to please people; our parents, our teachers, our friends, or even just society in general. But, as we grow into more developed individuals, it’s important to keep in mind the person that will always be with you is yourself. We must learn to seek love and acceptance from the inside, and when we do so, we will find that validation and confidence that we all have been seeking for so long.
Living for yourself means living the life that you want, regardless of other’s opinions and comments. Whatever your heart desires and feels aligned with, and whatever life you are proud of is the life that you should be living. Living to please and impress others is exhausting, and you aren’t being authentic- you’re doing it because you care too much about others. But, in the end… WHO CARES? Come to the realization that there is only one you. You were made this way for a reason, you were made to live YOUR truth. Now, you might be wondering how to do so, so below I listed some of the ways that I’ve been attempting to live my truth and seek approval within myself.
- Know yourself and your wants
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It’s important to have goals and experience life. When you go through bad experiences, you learn lessons and what you need/don’t need. Analyze this on your own and reflect on the past in order to gain insight into the future. Open yourself up to all of the possibilities. Stop automatically saying yes to things you don’t care about and start saying yes to things that will benefit you.
- Learn to be authentically you
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This means accepting everything about you- your energy, your sexuality, your personality, your looks, your ethnicity, your heart, your soul. Everything that makes you awesome- learn to love it and flaunt it. There’s only one of you here, so love yourself.
- Keep Growing and Going
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One of my favorite quotes as of recent is actually from American Idol (my Sunday night guilty pleasure). Lionel Richie said, “If you try to go back and scream at the past, you’ll trip on the future.”. This spoke to me because it basically is saying that you shouldn’t harp on things that have happened. They’re gone, they’re over; if you harp on these things, and you don’t grow from them, you’ll never be able to go on and you’ll be trapped in a never-ending cycle of self-loathing. Move on from the past, and continue to develop as an individual.
All in all, don’t try to fit in, don’t rush into things that society deems normal if you aren’t ready, and find that peace within yourself. Know your own worth in this world and start LIVING instead of surviving, because you are amazing.