The weight of other opinions

It doesn’t make sense to give weight to every opinion.

The opinion of a trusted mentor versus the opinion of a complete stranger versus the opinion of someone close to you but who has a fundamentally different outlook on life exist— or at least they should — on completely different planes.

The origin of many regrettable decisions can be traced back to trying to appease someone else’s unqualified or unhelpful judgement.

This takes me back to the famous top 5 regrets of the dying observed by the hospice nurse Bronnie Ware — chief among them being:

“I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life other’s expected of me.”

Even the advice of close friends and family, as well intended as they may be, may not always serve you or the pursuit of your specific goals.

There is real wisdom in the phrase: “you do you.”

If you have conviction in something, it’s worth spending a part of your life chasing after it because it is your convictions and your life.