Read This When You Find Yourself Needing Some Tough Love

You’ve been hiding for too long. You pretend everything is perfect by forcing a smile and soothing your mind with pretty lies and promises of a better you without ever having any real intention of actually following through.

When life gets tough, you reside back inside your head to seek comfort in the meaningless reasons you live the way you live and then you let yourself soak in the self pity that lets you off the hook whenever you need it to.

But that isn’t going to work anymore. You’re better than who you’ve been and the disappointment you feel in yourself may be well deserved but it isn’t acceptable. Not anymore.

You need to stop.

Stop underestimating yourself. Stop procrastinating. Stop running. Stop giving in and stop giving up. Stop letting negative thoughts clutter your brain and stop making excuses to be a lesser version of yourself.

You need to let it all go.

Let go of the toxic voice in your head whose sole purpose is to destroy your self-esteem. Let go of all the self-hate and self-doubt that settles in the pit of your stomach and let go of the feeling living deep within you that tells you you’re not good enough. It was all a lie and it is no longer your excuse.

You need to quit feeling sorry for yourself.

Nobody else is responsible for your life. Accept what you have and haven’t done to get you to exactly where you are. If you don’t like who you’ve been, change. If you hate where you are, fix it. Take control and learn from every mistake you have ever made and then forgive yourself because you deserve to be happy.

Now is when you need to start living your life again.

Acknowledge your problems, because you can’t run anymore and you can’t keep pretending they don’t exist. So accept them already. You need to deal with them, and it might be the hardest thing you ever do. But you are going to do it. You’re going to face them, and then you are going to destroy them. Because you are strong enough to do it.

It’s time to be fierce.

Find your voice. Fight for yourself, and stand up for what you believe in. Stop caring what other people think and kick everyone who doesn’t believe in you out of your life. You don’t need them. Know you deserve more and let yourself have it when you find it.

Love with every piece of your soul.

Think with your head, and love with your heart. You can’t keep holding the mistakes of the people in your past against the people in your present. Love yourself enough to let other people love you. Stop letting your trust issues be the reason for not letting people in and be brave enough to believe in people again. Believe in yourself again.

Follow your dreams.

Set goals and dream big. You can’t worry about the what if’s in life or the failures of your past. You need to be kind to yourself, but firm with yourself too. Set boundaries and follow through. Dreams don’t have time for excuses, and you don’t have any time left to waste. Get your shit together, and make it happen. Fall in love with your life.

Fall in love with yourself.

Rely on yourself, and build yourself up. Love yourself. Sometimes it’s hard, and sometimes it feels damn near impossible, but you have to be able to do it, even if you don’t believe you deserve it. Even if you don’t believe you can do it. Because sometimes, life gets tough, but your self love is tougher. And you’re tougher too.

TCID: aly–mchenry