What It Means To Honor Yourself Without Waiting For Validation
Honoring yourself without waiting for anyone’s validation may sound like a simple thing to do, but in reality, it’s not, because honoring yourself may often require you to be alone or do things without anyone’s support or help. Honoring yourself means losing people who don’t respect you or appreciate you. It means being true to yourself instead of lying to yourself to keep people around. It means doing the hard thing even though you don’t want to. It means putting yourself first instead of trying to please others.
Honoring yourself means you may not find love easily and you may find yourself constantly walking away from relationships because you’re not getting the respect or the love you deserve. It means choosing to be single rather than being with someone who doesn’t value you just for the sake of being in a relationship. It means that you will sometimes feel misunderstood, because your path may look different and not many people will applaud you or root for you.
It means that you will make all your hard decisions alone because you’re not seeking anyone’s approval or advice before taking a big risk. Honoring yourself means trusting in your own judgment and your own plans even if you fail. It means that you will be the only one picking up the broken pieces if anything goes wrong but you are willing to pay that price. Honoring yourself means setting boundaries with people no matter how close they are; it means putting an end to any form of abuse from friends, family, coworkers or partners. It means having the courage to end friendships, leave relationships, and quit jobs that demean and underestimate you.
Honoring yourself means choosing yourself over and over again and relearning how to do that under pressure, against those who intimidate you, in the face of something you truly want, with someone you truly love. It means being able to bet on yourself every time even if you’re not sure you can make it. It means teaching others how to treat you until you get the love and respect you deserve.
And last but not least, it means forgiving yourself for all the times you didn’t know how to love yourself or put yourself first, for all the times you let someone make you feel like you’re not enough, for all the times you allowed someone to disrespect you or belittle you and all the times you allowed people to make you question your worth. It means letting that old version of you that didn’t know any better go and learning that it’s never too late to value yourself in a way you never have before and steering clear of anyone who doesn’t value you or honor you the way you truly want.