I don’t need everyone to like me. I've decided that I like me.

Having permission to like yourself as you are might seem like a simple thing to want.

But it gets more complicated once we include the opinions of others.

If you follow your heart, you won't be walking on anyone else’s beaten path.

Even though you may feel lost from time to time, you can't lose your way if you're making your own path. Your path won’t exist until you create it, and it's yours alone to find. So who's to say you're lost? You're discovering your path, and when you're on a journey there is no lost, only discovery.

Anyone who judges you for doing it the wrong way isn't paying attention to their own path. Like an explorer charting wild and unknown territory, when you follow your heart you have the opportunity to discover the secrets you have hidden deep within.

Every day you wake up to begin a new chapter in your life story.

The story of your life isn't written until you live it, and you get to make it up as you go along. You are in charge of deciding what story lines to follow, which choices to make, what your character says and does. You give your life story its overall tone and feel. You develop new plots, story lines, and introduce new characters into the story.

You can be your own writer, editor, and publisher. You don't need anyone else to give you the stamp of approval - it's your story to tell, not theirs. By doing this, you get to know yourself better.

You may not realize what a gift you are, simply for existing and being yourself.

Nobody else has ever been just like you. The exact combination of stuff that is you, is one of a kind. Because of this, you don’t really have any competition, and you don’t ever have to be anything but you. Your spirit is unique in all of time, and nobody else can replace you.

The best part of this is that you get to decide how and who you want to be. Sometimes, because of this uniqueness, you may feel invalidated.

Nobody knows you better than you know yourself.

If someone tells you they know you better than you do, they are misinformed. They might be saying that they know who they want you to be, who you are 'supposed' to be, or who you want them to think you are. Meanwhile, the actual truth of who you are might be hidden and protected down deep, under a surface of demands, responsibilities, beliefs, agreements, and other people’s energy.

Your truth might be so well hidden that even you are having a hard time seeing it. You might not know yourself, the real you, at all.

What happens when you dive into the depths of yourself and find your authenticity?

When you get very honest about who you are right now, what changes for you? When you question what’s real and authentic for yourself, you choose to look deeper than the surface of things. You grow when you choose to follow your spirit’s truth. When you answer your own deepest questions truthfully, you’re willing to see clearly now, to drop your old illusions.

You are made of energy. Every part of you is energy: body, mind, and spirit.

Your emotions, creativity, abilities, intellect, interests, and all the rest, are energy. There’s energy in everything you do, say, feel, and decide to have. You have a personal style that comes from your unique energy. This is your spirit playing and creating, and it’s one of a kind.

The way you communicate with the world around you has energy. Your creative expression, your personal taste, your relationships with others, your health, finances, you name it – all have energy. Every time you change your energy, you change your life. Change any of your energy, and your life changes too.

You already are one of a kind. All you really need to do to be different, to stand out in a crowd, is to be yourself.

This works even better if you can also love who you are, and own your own self image. ‘But who am I?’ you may well ask yourself, "can I really be myself?".

It’s your job to find this out. Along the way, others will attempt to help you do this, by telling you who they think you are. Most of them don’t really know, because nobody knows you better than you know yourself.

When you decide it's time for you to be seen, you will be seen. Are you ready?

The act of deciding changes everything. You have chosen to take a step.

A clear decision to be seen will help you head confidently to the place where you get to decide again, and then make another decision after that. It depends on how you want to be seen.

If you want it to be real for you, you've got to find your validation from within yourself.

Validation is a spiritual vibration that affects you on every level, but especially in your emotions. You can feel validation from within.

Validation is not an intellectual energy. You can be validated for your intellect, but unless you are allowed to have the validation for yourself, you may try to prove your worth to others. This often turns into a never ending cycle of needing to 'prove' you have worth in order to have it.