This past week I saw Montel Williams on “The Doctors” program on TV. In case you don’t know who Montel is, he is a well-known talk show host who suffers from MS (multiple sclerosis). He was on the program to help a young woman who is also living with a disabling illness. During the course of the interview, he made the statement that he decided early in his fight against MS that he was not going to let other people dictate his progress or lack of it. He said, “I don’t have to live down to other people’s expectations.”

This is an amazing statement and doesn’t just apply in cases of illness or disability. You can also apply this to your talents and your general emotional well-being.

All through life people have expectations for us. Our parents, our teachers, ours friends, our employers, our spouses, our children, and so on. Truly, if you always try to live up or down to other people’s expectations, you’ll get to the end of your life and realize you were so busy trying to please or impress others that you lost yourself and didn’t have the life you wanted. Don’t do that to yourself. Decide today that you will no longer allow yourself to live down to other people’s expectations.