Society is actually a cage. A place where everyone is telling you if you do this, date this person, function this way; you will be happy. When I hate to tell you, but that's all a load of bull.

You're never going to feel your freest most genuine self, copying and pasting what others are doing. By constantly looking for approval, and if someone else's grass is greener or not. Your own grass is going to turn into a brown hopeless mess.So start focusing on you and stop listening to what they think you can and can't be.

You know yourself the best, that's merely a fact. So when you have an idea or want to mold yourself a certain way, why ask someone who's not you if they approve. Who cares what they think!

It's all about if you approve the way you're living your life.

I used to always look around for approval (I still catch myself doing it), but I have to back up ask myself, "What makes me happy?"

How my brain works is different from yours, your friends, and even my own parents. I am who I am and so are you! So what makes me happy vs what makes you happy or anyone else in this world is different, and that is okay.

Pulling away from what society is telling you is hard. Being able to do this is not just an easy one day process where all of a sudden you're free doing whatever it is that you believe you can do to your fullest potential. (I wish it were that easy!) However it can be done, but you need to realize it's a journey.

If you really want to stop following what they say you can't do and start pushing towards what you know you can do, you have to start from the beginning. That means starting to unravel what society, your friends, your family, your parents, have said you can and can't do from a teeny tiny human being. That's a lifetime of rewiring so don't get frustrated when it takes time!

I was fortunate to have hippie artist type parents that told me the world is my oyster. Which is so true but then as I grew up and got exposed to more concepts of "how I should live my life", I began to drown in what I can't do. When in reality it was because whoever was telling me "no you can't do that" couldn't do it themselves. With that insecurity and belief system set so deep into their way of life, there was no way they could look at me and tell me "you can '' because they simply didn't believe it themselves!

Fast forward to me finally being exposed to people, books, and ideas of "you can", I rerouted myself with all the things my parents had told me when I was a child; "the world is my oyster" AND IT'S YOURS TOO!

The only reason anyone ever tells you "you can't" do something is because they couldn't crawl out of society's death grip and believe in themselves. Then there's the opposite side of the spectrum of people who were able to get up one day and realize they want to be happy and they damn well can achieve that.

As long as you're passionate (and I mean really passionate) about what you want to achieve you can do it. I'm not saying it's going to be easy but I am saying if you believe it, you can achieve it.

So stop turning to people who keep telling you "you can't" and start turning to yourself simply saying "I can".