Emotional maturity, having a healthy self-concept, and fully accepting ourselves lie in releasing the opinions of others, not letting ourselves be negatively impacted by their judgments.

Approve of yourself, accept yourself! You are you and it’s okay to be you.

Sure, we all want to improve. That is laudable and normal. Yet the first step to self-improvement is self-acceptance.

To believe that your self worth is dependent on the acceptance of others is a slippery slope. There are 4 billion of us out there, each with different opinions and world views. Exactly which one of those 4 billion do you want to satisfy? All of them? You want to satisfy some social norm? There are thousands of cultures and subcultures out there, each with its own norm. Can’t conform to all of them.

How about you just making you content? And perhaps help out your fellow humans every now and then? Leave the world a little better place at the end of each day if you have the chance? Sounds like a good life to me. But you choose. It is your life and in that sense it is all about you.

You must first learn to love yourself before you can truly, deeply love anyone else. So embark on a life-long love affair with the person closest to you. You!

Closing quotes (lots):

“The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself.” — Mark Twain

“What you think about yourself is much more important than what others think of you.” — Marcus Annaeus Seneca

“What a man thinks of himself, that is what determines, or rather indicates, his fate.” — Henry David Thoreau

“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” — Johann von Goethe

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

“Do not let your peace depend on the hearts of men; whatever they say about you, good or bad, you are not because of another man, for as you are, you are.” — Thomas a’ Kempis