It's a natural desire to want to fit in the mold. Society expects that we dress a certain way, go through life stages at certain points and hold certain beliefs to be accepted. Sometimes, we are told that we are bad people for not following conventional wisdom and must be "redeemed" in a certain way. Standing out often means being the sore thumb and being subjected to ridicule, hatred and being told to change life plans to something more conventional. What good is life if it's about pleasing other people?

This is not a traditional "follow your dreams" post that encourages the thought process that if you believe hard enough, you can make pig flies. Rather, it's about considering what is the most important to you in life.

If it's about family, make it the focal point even if it means you can't go to the bar every day or must take a career you don't like. If you believe that being a full-time author is necessary not only towards your satisfaction but for what your work has to say, do it even if it means you sometimes have an empty refrigerator.

Being a goal-orientated person means that you will have to make decisions that people will hate, possibly even making enemies. Living a satisfying life is going to come with opposition, and that is something you can't push away.

The worst thing anyone can do is to live their life to be validated by other people. At first, being a people pleaser may sound ideal, but then you realize that a lot of people still dislike you for being a weak person. Worse, the people who claim to be your friends will likely just be using you to enforce their own agenda. Then when they decide that you are no longer useful, they will toss you out like a rag-doll.

Why live life like this, to join a group to feel accepted only to find out they never considered you part of the team anyway?

You can stop this desperation by deciding to live for what you believe in no matter what. Often, this means making hard choices and realizing there are certain things in life you won't get. It will also mean that people may not choose to support you because your ambitions do not fall in line with what other people want, possibly including family and close friends.

Think of it like this: there are no easy paths to success, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. We all want to be at the destination, but we should appreciate the difficulties of the twists and turns of the road to get there.