Others love you the most when you live your truth. You’re on your own path, chosen and shaped by your situation, your environment, talents, skills, attitudes, aptitudes and interests. Others have theirs which determine the path they take. Comparing your path with someone else’s is pointless, like comparing apples with oranges; both are fruits, but with different qualities.
The only meaningful comparison is who you have become compared with how you used to be, in other words, how much progress you have made on your spiritual journey.
Don’t be a DOPE
Most of us are easily influenced by those around us. We find ourselves thinking and talking as they do and edit ourselves to win their approval. Consequently we start behaving like them too. We become a DOPE – Driven by Other People’s Expectations.
Examine your motivations and start thinking for yourself. What others say is rarely the issue unless they’ve trying to help and have something useful to contribute. They don’t know what’s best for you, and you shouldn’t expect them to.
Trust in your own assessment of what is right and true and make your own choices. If others try to put you off, do it anyway.
©David Lawrence Preston, 7.12.2016
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How to Books, 2007