No one's approval matters if you don't have your own

We all seek approval.

We want to know that we’re doing well.

That we’re meeting expectations.

That we’re living up to the standards that have been set.

We do this in our careers.

We do this in our relationships.

We do this in nearly every aspect of life.

There’s plenty of benefit in seeking approval.

Knowing that we’re hitting the mark.

That we’re on track.

Many of us, however, are overlooking an important factor.

Whose approval are we working so hard to obtain?

Whose standards of success have we chosen?

Whose expectations are we working to meet?

Are our efforts intended only to satisfy others?

Or are they intended to satisfy ourselves?

What good is the former without the latter?

What benefit do we derive from pleasing everybody but ourselves?

The two outcomes aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.

Yet, many of us make them so.

We see sacrifice as a badge of honor.

We go out of our way to be selfless.

To look a certain way in others’ eyes.

Never considering what we want for ourselves.

What we want our lives to look like.

What we want to achieve.

Who we want to be.

Realizing, only once it’s too late, that we’ve lived an empty shell of a life.

When the driving force of which wasn’t selflessness, but insecurity.

Lack of self-awareness.

Lack of self love.

Lack of self approval.

A life wasted looking everywhere but inward for direction.

No one's approval matters if you don’t have your own.

Once you have that, you'll find others' approval matters even less.

It’s your life.

For whom are you living it?

Whose approval are you seeking?

Why does that approval matter so much?

What do you need to approve of yourself?

To accept yourself?

Love yourself?

What is it that stands between you and unconditional self love?

You are worthy of a most excellent life.

You choose what that life is.

You set the terms.

You’ve got this.