Is there a person in your life that you are constantly trying to please? Your parents? Your significant other? Or maybe your friends? The lingering question is why? Do you get a reward or benefit out of it? If not, then why do some of us constantly live our lives to try to please others?

Perhaps, some of these individuals who we try so hard to please are incapable of ever being truly satisfied with what you do or do not do. Shortly after, we realize there is no point of trying anymore and that we have wasted our precious time trying to please them in the first place. We find ourselves always doing “what is expected” or the “right thing to do” only to find the people we want to please will always disappointed with it no matter what.

Honestly, who cares what people think?!

I’m sure we’ve all heard this countless times before, but seriously why should it matter? At the end of the day, if you are satisfied with the outcomes of your life and your accomplishments thus far it shouldn’t have to align with what anyone else says or thinks. Yet, we continue to crave this type of approval from others. What for? Attention? Instant gratification? Constant reassurance? A validation of some sort? It could be both or it could be for personal reasons. Either way, living this way almost always leads to disappointment.

Living life to constantly please others is to merely exist. Existing for the sole purpose of that specific group of individuals or individual is not worth your time. In this brief life, you shouldn’t have to settle. You should set goals around yourself and only yourself, not anyone else. Unfortunately, more often than not we find ourselves down this sort of trap from time to time. We feel that life would be meaningless if there wasn’t someone there to praise or criticize us for it. Once again, this urgency to have someone else’s opinion on a matter and take it as our own resonates with us.

Everyone else’s opinion is irrelevant!

The only opinion that should matter is yours. After all, you know yourself better than anybody else. You are your own best friend. You are your own best advocate. Become invested in yourself and your life. As selfish as that may sound, it will bring an unimaginable happiness into life. That feeling of gratification will come. It may not occur overnight, but believe in delayed gratification and you’re bound for unexpected results.

Don’t let the wrong people bring you down. You shouldn’t have to lower your standards to fit everyone else’s. Failed relationships stay in the past for a reason. Certain people are not meant to be in your present for obvious reasons. Leave them in the past. Whether that is a toxic friend, ex, or former boss, cut the negativity out and you will find yourself becoming an overall happier person. Replace them with positive relationships and energies; people who genuinely want to see you succeed, not the ones who are unsupportive and consistently crap on your parade. You don’t need that kind of negativity in your life.

To wrap things up, you shouldn’t have to compete with everyone else. It’s important to realize that no matter how good you are to people, it won’t make them good to you.