It’s your attitude about yourself that people take on and believe. Hold your own and act like you’re #1, and everyone will believe it as long as you do.

I bring this up is for those of you who have a tendency to put others’ opinion, taste, attitude, or general approach to life above your own.

Once you’ve taken yourself out of first place in your own mind, their approval or validation of you starts to matter more than it should. You can get carried away to the point you forget how to set your own tone.

Bullies take advantage of this tendency because so many of their victims have it: The impulse to depend on what others think.

This goes past caring what they think. Caring what they think means you factor it in. Depending on it means you can’t act on your own let alone stand your ground against challenges.