WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR DEFINING YOU?
Who are you waiting for to tell you that your work is good, your life is good and that you are something significant? What gives a friend, a parent, an institution, a stranger the right to define you with their opinion and/or interpretation of the you they think they see and experience (positive or negative). Actually, they are free to assess and/or judge anyone, including you and I. But what is the importance or significance of their judgement? There actually is none but the power that we choose to give it. That is the key. What others think and feel in their experience of you is theirs to own and not yours to necessarily accept. The rain falling from the sky has little significance except for the power and interpretation that you give it as you experience it.
What someone thinks of you and says about you is only valuable to you because you give it value/power by either accepting it or rejecting it. Whatever you experience in joy and/or pain is only meaningful and valuable because of the significance you bestow upon it. You are not a blank or unused canvas waiting for others to create their view of who you are. You are not here for others to celebrate the parts of you that they like, that makes them feel better about themselves. You are not anything fixed or static. You are actually far more than anyone - yourself included - can imagine you are. Your limits are your perception of yourself and the beliefs about yourself that you accept as fact, that others in their view have given to you (parents and family absolutely included).
