Reminder: Your Life Is Your Own, So Don’t Live It For Anyone Else 🌎
I hope you find the courage to change your life.
Welcome to the Collective World X Thought Catalog Newsletter. Collective World is a one-of-a-kind creative network powered by the minds and voices behind The Thought & Expression Company. We’re so glad you’re here.
It’s easy to get lost in what we think we should be. That’s probably because we grow up in a society that tells us there’s only one “right” way to live. We’re given a template outlining what our lives should look like, from the career we choose to the relationships we form, and we’re led to believe that if we stray away from it, we’re doing something wrong.
But here’s the secret: Your life is your own, and you can do absolutely anything you want with it.
The fact of the matter is that you could do everything you were ever told you should but you still wouldn’t make everyone happy. And even if you could, none of it would matter if at the end, you were the one who was miserable. So why not do what makes you happy?
The truth is, the only “right” way to live is the way that fills your soul with light. That makes you feel completely and authentically you. That makes your universe feel aligned and your mind at peace. And when you find this, you’ll know you’re on the right path, no matter what anyone else has to say about it.
Have the courage to go after what you want, even if it’s unconventional. Even if you’re afraid people will think you’re too “weird” or “different.” Because the truth is, less people will care than you think will, and the people who love you will just be happy that you’re happy. And those who aren’t happy for you? Maybe they’re just not your people. And that’s okay. As Anice Emery Clarke wrote, “what’s worse than staying with the people who don’t support you is the feeling of being trapped, forcing yourself to hush down when all you ever wanted to do is live. Yes, live.”
Sometimes, all you need to do is have faith that you have the strength to live the life that makes you happy, because this life is yours, and your opinion is the only one that truly matters. And when you’re truly happy, the critical voices of others just fade away into background noise.
So, if you’re struggling to choose between what makes you happy and what the world expects from you, remember these words by Jerine Nicole: “When you’re enamored with your life, you no longer seek social validation. You no longer care about what others think of you. You no longer judge yourself as intensely as before because you realize that judgment is separation from love.”
What We’re Reading This Week 📖💛
“So my relationship with men in general, my entire life, has always been: You’re going to hurt me, so I’ll hurt you first. It’s just toxic and prevents me from actually finding any happiness.” — Adele
“From your letter we gather that your heart may be taken, but that your head is still up for grabs.” — Wislawa Szymborska
“More than anything, you deserve to be okay. You deserve to wholeheartedly love yourself and your life.” — Jacqueline Whitney
“I think it’s a mark of a great book that things look very different when you read them at different ages.” — Jonathan Franzen
“As immigrants, we were never meant to turn a house in New Jersey into a permanent home — not when home means something different for each of us.” — Maya Georgi
For more reading recommendations follow Quote Catalog where we find and file the best things to read every single day.
Let us leave you with this:
“Your life is your own. I want it to pass through your head so many times it slowly clears out the debris of your fear. I want you to meditate on it until you realize that you are not too strange, you just have the courage to be your true self; you are not too different, you just have the courage to follow your own heart; you are not unworthy, you are just honest about the very natural, human experience of feeling unworthiness. Every person alive wishes to embody those very same forms of freedom. They are not judging you, they are expressing the parts of themselves they’ve judged into silence. Your life is your own, and it always will be. You must find the courage to claim it, or it will pass by you untouched—a glimmering, lost potential of all that could have been.” — Brianna Wiest
I hope you find the courage to live the life that makes you happy 🌻
For more follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and find us on TikTok.
