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Ten Quotes About The Importance Of Living Your Own Life

- David Stidston

By David StidstonPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
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"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition." - Steve Jobs

In the space of just two weeks, at the end of last year, I had no less than six different people voicing their opinion to me on how I should be living my life, and how I should live my life in the future. The more I think about this, the more I just shake my head. I don't know whether to laugh about it, be annoyed about it, be disgusted about it, or what? I just cannot believe the nerve of some people. Then I think to myself, hang on, as frustrating, laughable, and annoying this may be, this is nothing more than normality and reality within society. It's a sad fact, that so many people live their life telling other people how they should live theirs. Granted that some advice is constructive, because we should always have people surrounding us and encouraging us to strive for our goals, to be encouraging us to reach our full potential, to be encouraging us to work hard for success, and to be encouraging us to be constantly bettering ourselves. The truth is, very few people genuinely give us constructive advice that is actually for our benefit. Instead, they give advice on what they believe is best for us, what is convenient for them, and what best fits their agenda. The advice they give is based on what they want for us, not what we want for us! When you step back and take a look at the bigger picture, you will come to realize that the overwhelming majority of people who offer their advice on how you should live your life, actually aren't even that successful themselves, if at all. They are giving you advice based on their thoughts, beliefs, and own requests, rather than providing beneficial advice based from personal development education, and best practice tips from those who have actually achieved success in life. They have failed to achieve what they want in life, so they don't want to see you achieve what you want either, otherwise that makes them look inferior and incompetent.

Some of the advice I received, at the end of last year, revolved around parenting. This one particular person was criticizing me for my decisions and actions, and labelling me as a bad father, when the truth is that their own parenting, in raising their own children, was extremely poor. They are at the opposite end of the scale when it comes to a role model parent, let me tell you, and the last person I would ever take advice from. The values and morals they have taught their own children, and have now influenced them to believe, is of a very low standard and very concerning. Here they are harassing and bullying me into trying to live my life to their wishes and expectations, and they believe that's an acceptable form of behaviour. This is the form of behaviour they believe is credible and acceptable for my daughter to also live by, encouraging the act of bullying and harassment. They were quick to throw advice and criticism my way, but when I returned fire, they then played the victim. They even had their partner address me, who also had the nerve to tell me how I should be living my life. It's a classic example of what so many people are like. If you are not living your life to other people's expectations, or you are inconveniencing them, or you are not living your life in a way that fits their agenda, they will not only throw advice your way, but also criticism and even verbal abuse.

As hard as it may be to accept, those who will throw their advice and criticism at us, about how we should live our life, are quite often our own friends and loved ones. Granted that many of these people do indeed want to see us happy and successful, most of them try and influence and manipulate us to follow their advice and direction though, rather than encourage us to follow our own heart. Why? Because they believe they know best. Either that, or they have the motive of leading us to the success that they want for us, not what we want. Parents can be a prime example of this behaviour. Even when their children reach adulthood, parents can often influence and manipulate them to follow a certain path in life, when the reality is, those children have a passion for a different direction in life. Dare to go against their parents' wishes though, and it's perceived as disobedience or ingratitude. It's a problem that so many of us fail to deal with in life, that we are too focused on trying to please others, and be accepted and liked, that we lose focus on what we personally desire to achieve in life, and on how we would like to live. We choose popularity and acceptance over success and happiness, only to reach our senior years being filled with regret for having lived our life in such a way. We end up living a life by the design of others, not by our own.

Society can be extremely judgmental and unforgiving. If you're living a life that's not in line with how the majority of other people live theirs, you are scorned, ridiculed, criticized, and made to look foolish and weird. The thing is, if we keep living our life based on what other people think of us, and by how other people advise us to live it, then we are not truly living at all. We are merely existing! We need to focus on what's best for us! We each have a purpose in life, and we each have goals, so why are we so hell bent on following what everyone else does, or what other people tell us what we should do? Start living the life you want to live! Start making some bold decisions, and get stuck into some challenging actions, that are working towards achieving your goals, and which are creating a future blessed with success, happiness, and prosperity for yourself! The only advice you ever need to take from people is to follow your heart, pursue your goals, make decisions you feel are best for your future, and live your life your own way! By all means, learn from those who have achieved genuine success, and educate yourself with their best practices, but at the end of the day, follow your heart and instinct in life. Remember, excluding what is lawful, you never need to accept the advice from anyone who tells you how you should live your life! Stop existing, and start living! Here are ten quotes that highlight the importance of living a life by your own design.

1.- "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."

- Steve Jobs

2.- "One of the things that my parents have taught me is never listen to other people's expectations. You should live your own life and live up to your own expectations, and those are the only things I really care about it."

- Tiger Woods

3.- "Tis' better to live your own life imperfectly than to imitate someone else's perfectly."

- Elizabeth Gilbert

4.- "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."

- Oscar Wilde

5.- “Don't live someone else's life, incubate your own style”

- Myra Yadav

6.- "Champion the right to be yourself; dare to be different and to set your own pattern, live your own life, and follow your own star."

- Wilferd Peterson

7.- "I am Me, You are You, I'm just living my life, you should just live your own life, so take back those obscure preaching and do what you are supposed to do."

- Kim Heechul

8.- “The most common regret that people have on their deathbed is that they lived their life according to the desires of others, not how they wanted to.”

- Dr Prem Jagyasi

9.- "There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way."

- Christopher Morley

10.- "Being a failure at living your own life as best as you can is better than being a success living the life somebody else says you should live."

- Julius Lester

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About the Creator

David Stidston

My name is David Stidston, and I live in the beautiful city of Hobart, in Tasmania, Australia. My aim is to inspire and motivate as many people as possible, to pursue their goals, and create a future blessed with happiness and fulfillment.

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