Do you make your choices and decisions according to your own feelings, instincts, beliefs and thoughts or others’? If others’, such as your spouse, your family, your co-workers, your boss, or your friends, how can you be happy?

Who is your master? Yourself! And no one else could decide for you. You can include your loved ones in your thought and decision process, and get their perspective, but the decision should be yours and yours alone.

You are a divine being, you are a miracle, you are unique, you are strong, you are smart and you are more than capable to achieve anything you want to get, you want to become, you want to experience.

And for that reason, please do not let the craving for social approval blur your vision. It is okay to be unusual, it is okay to think differently than the majority. It is also okay to be innovative, even revolutionary. And if you want to make a difference, you need to be yourself. You need to love yourself the way you are, not the way others prefer you to be, to look, or to act.

Be brave, respect yourself, and gently encourage others to accept and respect you as you are. Self-respect and self-love are a “must” to get respected by others, and if you do not start doing this for yourself, then who will? When you start getting the respect you deserve from people around you, ironically, the social approval will follow too, anyway.