Stop putting your life on hold for other people. It’s time to stand up for yourself. To stand up for your dreams and your heart. Stop putting yourself in last place. And please know, you deserve a good life. You deserve to be happy.

Why are you spending so much time focusing on the negative people in your life? Why are you spending so much of your effort trying to make other people happy? It’s time to step up to the plate and be selfish. At last.

Perhaps this year, you stayed in a relationship that took everything out of you. Maybe 2017 was the year you let toxic friendships and relationships dictate your very own happiness. Perhaps you let people walk all over you, stomping on everything you believed in.

And maybe you let them do it, because you didn’t think you deserved anything good in this life.

Maybe you let someone from your past back into your life only to be let down, once again. And maybe this year, you didn’t follow your gut instinct or your heart. Maybe, all you did was let someone else tell you what to do. Maybe you let society, make a path for you, instead of doing what you actually wanted.

This needs to end now.

The putting yourself down and the self hate talk will end now. Because you deserve better. Because you are beautiful. Because your heart is huge, and doesn’t deserve ‘maybe’ love. And because you are special, whether you know it or not.

In 2018, put yourself on the top of your priority list. Put yourself first. Start believing that you are a force to be reckoned with, instead of believing that you are nothing. Start believing that your heart is so much more precious than you have ever remembered. And start believing that you, and your soul, are made to be loved.

In 2018, don’t settle for the friendships that you have only held onto because of history. Don’t settle for the friendships that judge your every move and belittle you. Don’t settle for the friendships that turn your world from light to dark. And don’t settle for the friendships that turn your light into dirt. Say goodbye to them. Let those people go. They never deserved you anyway.

In 2018, don’t settle for relationships that talk down to you. Don’t settle for relationships that are uncertain, that have you questioning everything about yourself and everything about your own worth. In 2018, say goodbye to the boy or the girl who said goodbye to you years ago. They aren’t coming back. It’s time to move on and to let them go, officially.

In 2018, do what your heart tells you to do. Follow it. And don’t turn your back on your dreams and your aspirations. Be selfish with your life and with your heart. Don’t ever apologize or feel guilty for doing what you want and need to do, to be happy.

Don’t say sorry for moving on from that toxic person or place. Don’t say sorry for letting go of old friends who you have nothing in common with anymore. Don’t say sorry for buying that plane ticket, leaving your past behind you. And don’t say sorry for being selfish.

Because this is your life. And why not spend it being happy. Why not spend it doing what makes your soul smile. Why not spend your life, doing everything that makes living worthwhile.

Be selfish. Be selfish in everything you do. At the end of the day the only person who you can depend on, is you. And the only person who you have when you close your eyes at the end of the night, is you.