1. No matter how good you are at something, there will always be someone better at it.

2. When in doubt, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

3. The worst someone can do is say “No.”

4. No one cares about what clothes you wear or how you style your hair. Stop caring so much about what other people think.

5. Confidence takes you far.

6. People come in our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime. Appreciate them while they’re there. You never know when they’ll be gone.

7. The sure way to be disappointed is by making someone out to be someone who they aren’t. Stop the scenes and scenarios playing out in you head, and look in front of you. Find out about them with your own eyes, not your imagination.

8. Not everyone will like you. Whether or not you did something wrong, there will always be people who don’t like you. Don’t spend your life trying to please them or figure out why they dislike you because they don’t matter. Focus on the people who actually care about you. As Dr. Seuss said, “Be who you are, and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

9. Nothing ever goes exactly according to how you plan it. Things won’t go your way. There’s no use in fretting or getting angry over something you can’t change. Even if none of it was your fault, take the punch and roll with it. You are always going to face problems that are the result of people not doing their jobs right or being misinformed.

10. Despite what they say, blood is not thicker than water. Just because you’re related doesn’t mean you have an obligation to love someone or treat them with respect. We don’t choose the families and situations we are born into. It doesn’t matter if you have the same blood coursing through your veins. If they’re abusive and toxic, they don't have to be a part of your life.

11. You have to learn to say no. Sometimes you have to turn people away. You can’t please everyone. Don’t risk your happiness for others. You are not expendable.

12. No matter what, you come first. Don’t feel guilty for putting yourself as a priority or feeling like there was more you could do. You can’t help anyone until you help yourself first.

13. The saying: “you can’t love someone else unless you love yourself,” couldn't be further from the truth. Sometimes it takes the love for or from someone else to find the love for ourselves.

14. You’re not “lame” or a “goody two-shoes” for doing the right thing. Go with your gut.

15. Don’t waste your time explaining who you are to people who are committed to misunderstanding you. You don’t owe anyone anything.

16. Everyone else is too busy panicking about everyone else noticing every tiny thing that could possibly be wrong about them to notice any tiny thing that could possibly be wrong with you.

17. Don’t live with regrets. Whatever choice you made in the past, you made the best choice that you could given the circumstances in any possible moment that you could make. It can also help you understand other people and why they do the things that they do. They’re just making the best possible choice for them. Everyone is doing the best they can, just like you. Just because a person makes mistakes doesn't make them a bad person; it makes them human.

18. Everything will pass. Like a big storm or a rainy day, it will suck at the moment, but the next day the sun will come out, and a rainbow will stretch across the sky, and everything will be okay.