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Don’t try to be someone else in order to gain people’s acceptance. Your value does not decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth. The fear of losing friends or not fitting in is bigger than the fear of being someone that you aren’t. Many times, we are too scared to be ourselves because that might mean risking your friendships with people. What we should actually fear is living our whole life as someone else. There is one thing you must never make apologies for in life-being yourself! Freedom is being you without anyone’s permission. Make no apologies for following your heart; a man on a mission needs no permission.
In order to maintain a healthy self-image, we must seek only for inward acceptance. An internal security will always produce an outward stability. Henri Frederic Amiel once said, “The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings.” Almost 80% of self-esteem and self-abuse issues are a result of people looking out for acceptance! The hardest battle you will ever have to fight is the battle to be yourself. Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are! We must spend more time with people and in places that give us the privilege of being ourselves. He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle away.
People that will live a fulfilling life must not only live above the acceptance from others, they must also learn how to handle rejection. One of the most demeaning psychological state is being in a state of rejection. Overcoming this state will put a high demand on our renewed perspective towards it. Sometimes, the greatest thing that will ever happen to some of us is rejection! The reason has been that most times, rejection is simply redirection. When people continually reject you, it is because God is redirecting you. One of the core secrets of great people is in their ability to handle and overcome rejection without harboring any form of bitterness. Don’t ever give in to people’s rejection, rather ask God to redirect you to your place of destiny fulfilment. Alexander Graham Bell said, “When one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us”. Rejection is inevitable and the most empowering way to handle rejection is to see it as redirection. Whether in relationships or career, we must have a healthy approach to rejection which is to see it as redirection.
So many dreams have died just because some people were always seeking acceptance from others instead of following their conviction. Many dreams have been stifled and many latent potential have been perpetually buried just because some people were so much addicted to the opinion and acceptance of others. When you live your life on people’s acceptance, you have pitiably marked yourself on a journey to oblivion. Never live on people’s acceptance. Live on the pursuit of your dreams, purpose, vision, passion and inner fulfillment. There will always be someone who can’t see your worth. Don’t let it be you! When you start seeing your worth, you’ll find it harder to stay around people who don’t.
In his electrifying poem that has held the world spell-bound for ages, Robert Frost gave one of the most amazing quotes that I have always fallen back on in times of critical decision making. He said, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference”. I want to reach out to as many that have been talked out of their passion and those that have neglected their dreams for a lesser life. You don’t need people’s acceptance to follow your dreams; you don’t need permission to pursue your passion, and you don’t need permission to follow unconventional paths. Hold tenaciously to your inner belief, and stop attaching your life to people’s acceptance.
“You may succeed if no one else believes in you, but you will never succeed if you don’t believe in yourself”-John C. Maxwell
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Originally published on LinkedIn
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