Dear People Pleaser,

Time and time again, I'm guilty of wanting the approval and validation of other people, just like you. There are times when I do something just to get noticed by one person so they can congratulate me or tell me I'm doing a good job.

Everybody wants to be liked by people and have friends and be noticed, it's human nature. It's okay to want people to like you, but when that becomes all you think about and everything you go after, it becomes a problem.

When you go to work and hear a customer complain about you, all you can think is how to get them to appreciate you and compliment on your service. When you go to class and have to do a group project but hear the people in your group critique your work, your thoughts automatically sort through ways to get them to like you. Not your work, but you because you can't bear to have people not like you. Then you hang out with your friends and they're jokingly making fun of you but you actually take that to heart and constantly think of all the things they were saying. You go to bed thinking of all these things and then you get up the next morning and do it all over again.

It's exhausting, isn't it? Trying to be the center of attention but also being perfect? It is because I know. I know all the things that you're thinking and I know what you feel. When it feels like even one person doesn't like you, you have to go and try to change their mind.

Let it go. Please just let go of this feeling of wanting to do everything for everyone and being something to everyone. It's okay to want people to like you but don't make it your life. You'll soon lose yourself trying to be everything to everyone when you should be yourself. The right people will like you for your genuine self. Don't compromise that.