Quote of the Day

I used to find myself struggling to remember this. Usually when I'd been spending too much time around people who weren't working with the same set of goals as I am. They couldn't understand what's important to me wasn't the same as what's important to them, and so they dismissed it out of hand, leaving me feeling insecure and sometimes even a bit conflicted.

But, I realized, finally, that what was going on wasn't about them. It was about me. I was letting their ideas about me live inside my head. I needed their approval to feel justified in my actions. I was giving their opinion of me and my life more weight than my own.

While I still sometimes catch myself feeling disappointed that someone isn't as supportive as I'd like them to be, I'm rarely hurt by it. After years of working on it, I think I've finally insulated my ego sufficiently from the opinions of others. I like myself, and what I'm doing, and if someone else doesn't, well, that's none of my business.



"We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us." Virginia Satir