You Have Nothing to Prove
Who even cares if you’re a good person?
If you need to remind yourself something, remind yourself of this: you don’t have to prove anything to anyone.
You don’t have to prove that you’re a hard worker.
You don’t have to prove that you’re talented.
You don’t even have to prove that you’re a good person.
Do you know why? Because most people don’t care. Because no matter what you do, others will perceive you according to their own filters and biases.
They will make their own assumptions about you, your character, your abilities, and your intentions. And you can’t control which conclusions they’ll come to.
They’ll often judge you based on your appearance, and you’ll find that a first impression is almost impossible to change. They’ll have their own agenda and their own priorities, and you won’t fit into many of them very often.
Acting as if you have something to prove won’t get you the results you want
Trying to prove something comes from the mentality of focusing on the image you’re projecting, whereas the urge to achieve has to come from within. You need a set of guiding principles and inner strength to propel you forward.
If you let other people’s perceptions shape what you do and how you behave, you’ll end up pursuing what they think is valuable in detriment to what it’s actually valuable to you.
Proving something is tied to your appearance, being is tied to your essence.
All you have to do is to live by your standards and respect your own values (as long as you’re not hurting anyone else, of course), and the rest is a consequence.
Your actions do matter
But you have to take action for the right reasons.
Your motivation should be guided by an internal moral compass. By a genuine desire to succeed at your endeavors. By the fire you carry inside, which propels you forward in life.
Your motivation should come from within, and what you do should be a genuine expression of who you are, not a reaction to how you think others perceive you.
Every action has a consequence. Every action generates a new perception, and you should be conscious of that, but if you try to shape your actions so that you’re perceived a certain way, not only will you be going against your nature, but you won’t have control over the outcome.
Going against your nature is not only unhealthy, but unsustainable in the long run.
So, forget about proving anything to anyone.
In the best case, you don’t have to.
In the worst case, you won’t be able to — people will simply draw their own conclusions.
Instead, focus on being yourself and on pursuing what really matters to you.
The rest is a consequence.
