This is a difficult topic to address for many people, and even harder in short writing like this, but we’re going to do it anyway because that’s what we do here. I’m talking about the misplaced desire for acceptance and approval that is holding too many of you back from becoming a better version of you and contributing better things to your world.Permission never requested is permission never denied. Approval never needed is rejection never experienced. You don’t need anyone’s permission. Their approval isn’t required either. The only thing you need is your own commitment, for your own reasons, to a standard you choose for yourself.
It’s not about anyone else, no matter how close or far they are to you, because they’re not you. It’s your life, and someone else’s opinion of it is their life. You only have one head, one heart, one day at a time. Live it as the person you want to be, not the person people try to make you be.
You know if I’m talking to you. You’re aware of the struggle to reconcile your desire to get better with your desire to be seen as a certain kind of person. Self-awareness of this barrier tends to be high. Action to overcome it tends to be low.
People are simply too attached to what others think of them. It hurts to hear a colleague criticize your optimism as naivete. It isn’t enjoyable to hear your parents judge you for not living the same way they live. It’s easy to allow that lack of approval from them to chip away at your confidence and commitment to work hard on who you want to be.
Don’t deprive yourself, and the people you care about, of the great things you can do because you’re too worried what people would think of you. Other people will think what they want to think and have opinions they want to have. That includes close family and friends. You have no control over that. Never, ever let your day-to-day action be directed by an attempt to avoid the disapproval of others.
Do the work.
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