Drop the need to be understood. You give so much power away by over-explaining or sugar coating your responses to make your truth taste sweeter to every single person. Someone disagrees? Awesome. You can’t step into the light without triggering someone’s shadow.

As Maya Angelou famously advised, when people tell you who they are, believe them. Just as important, however, when people try to tell you who you are, don’t believe them. You are the only custodian of your own integrity, and the assumptions made by those that misunderstand who you are and what you stand for reveal a great deal about them and absol... See more