It’s something that affects our daily lives far more than we realize. We’re afraid to dress a certain way or maybe we’re afraid to raise our hand in class and express how we truly feel about the matter at hand, simply because we don’t want to be judged. Instead, we tend to stay in our shell and hope we blend in with the rest because, clearly, drawing attention to ourselves or standing out is the worst possible thing we could do.

What good are we really doing ourselves by following the crowd? Why are we allowing ourselves to blend in and live in the shadow of others? Well for most of us, the answer is that we’re simply scared. We’re scared of being different, we’re scared of standing out. But, we are not going to be able to live our best possible lives if we cannot let go of these fears.

What I’ve come to realize is that what other people think of us actually has nothing to do with us. When someone doesn’t like something about us or doesn’t like us in general, it is not because there is something wrong with us. Rather, there is something about us that reminds that person of something about themselves that they do not like or are insecure about.

Of course, it is definitely easier said than done. It is simply in our nature to care about the opinions of others and therefore it is merely impossible to not care a single bit about what others think of us. However, we most definitely cannot let others define who we are or hold us back from living our lives fully. We must be able to reach a place where put ourselves first and always put the opinions of others second.

It’s totally fine to accept a compliment every now and then. However, when we get to the point where we rely on others to feel a sense of validity, well, we’re screwed. Frankly, no amount of compliments is going to make up for a lack of confidence or lack of self-love. We shouldn’t need others to tell us we’re awesome, you should already know that and believe it down to your core.

But the question becomes how do we start living for ourselves rather than for others? Well, before we do or say something we should first ask ourselves why. Is our motive behind saying that to be liked or to impress someone? Is it really something you want to be doing or are you feeling pressured to do it in order to gain likeability? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then you’re in trouble. Don’t do it.

You need to trust yourself and your awesomeness. When you know your worth, you won’t look for it in other people and eventually you will realize that you don't care what the hell anyone else has to say about you. The only reason they won’t like you is because they’re jealous of how damn confident you are.

Know yourself and make decisions for YOU, everyone and everything else is simply noise. Your happiness and well-being is all that really matters at the end of the day. Take risks and be unique, it's what we were born to do.