I once told my high-school history teacher, unprompted, “Hey, dude, you get seventy percent. Think about it—seventy percent of my time, my energy, my everything? That’s a lot. But you can’t have the rest. That’s for me.” I was so used to teachers asking for total effort—for all of us students to give our absolute best every single day—that this felt like taking a stand. It felt revolutionary; or, like I was suddenly a trailblazer for students’ rights.

I wasn’t. In fact, I was wrong to take so little. In the years since, I learned that it's okay to claim the one-hundred percent for myself. It doesn’t make me selfish or lazy. How could it? What’s mine is mine. I don’t owe it to anyone except myself. And the amazing, delightful contradiction is: the more I fill my own metaphorical cup, the more it spills over onto the things and the people I love most.

Here are six things that you don’t anyone:

1. Your Time

I know people like to say, “Time is money,” but that’s not true. Time is more valuable than money. You can get more of the latter, but not the former. Therefore, you don’t owe your time to anyone. There are certain obligations you must fulfill, of course. Eight hours of sleep.

A few hours in class. Several hours at work.

As these obligations are met, the dwindling time you have left becomes more and more precious. Don’t let anyone take it from you. Don’t let anyone make you feel obligated to give it. Social media may give you the illusion that everyone else is using their time more efficiently than you, but the goal of your day shouldn't be to fill every second with productivity. Leave that mindset behind and discover a more beneficial one: your time is yours, so do with it whatever you please.

2. Your Energy

No one has boundless energy (except Tigger, from Winnie the Pooh). Your energy is finite and must be replenished daily. If you lose sleep, because your friend wanted you to accompany them to a party you didn’t even want to go to in the first place, then you’ve sacrificed a portion of your energy for the next day. Don’t. Give your energy to the things you’re passionate about, then watch as those things grow and flourish.

3. Your Money

Money, like any gift, should be freely and happily given. Say, your friends invite you to dinner but you’re running low on funds. Perhaps it seems unkind not to go out? As though you’ve “left them hanging”? You haven’t. All you’ve done is look after your own interests and taken care of yourself (i.e. being an adult). No one will fault you for that, and if they do, they aren’t very good friends.

4. Your Body

This one goes without saying—but I’ll say it anyway. YOU DO NOT OWE ANYONE YOUR BODY. (I’m looking at you “nice guys”).

5. Your Food

This one applies when people with sticky fingers are trying to pluck French fries off your plate. Smack those hands away! Okay… they can have one.

6. Your Love

Love, in particular, is what leads us to give ourselves in other ways. Unlike time and energy, love is not finite. You can give as much as you want, to whoever you want, whenever you’d like. But (and this is a big BUT) you don’t owe your love to anyone. Or anything.

What others love, you are not obligated to also love. You also are not obligated to give time, energy, money, food, or your body to the things you love. You can, if you want.

Want is what it all comes down to. You can give everything you have to someone else, or something else, if that’s what you want to do. But—I’ll say it once more—you don’t owe yourself, or what’s yours, to anyone.