“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

No matter what you do in your life, there will always be people who criticize you. It could be out of envy, insecurity, or disagreement with your actions—it doesn’t matter. People love to complain.

If criticism is inevitable then you might as well live your life freely. Take the criticisms while doing what you want, rather than doing something you don’t want and being criticized anyways.

“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.“
— Seneca

When you’re anxious about something, it’s easy to fall into the trap of negative overthinking. Unfortunately, such thinking usually leads to stress, pain, and poor performance.

But what always happens is that the thing you were anxious about turns out to be nowhere near as bad as you were thinking it would be. A lot of the pressure you put on yourself wasn’t necessary.

Don’t beat yourself up over things that you haven’t experienced yet, those times will come. Focus on enjoying your present reality and you’ll live a much happier life.

“Frodo: I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Life is tough. There are going to be times when it feels so overwhelming that you wish you could just throw it all away.

But those wishes aren’t going to help you move forward. The only thing that will help you make progress and improve your situation is your own actions.

Remember that at any moment in life you have a choice: what will you do now? You don’t have to worry about how bad the past was or how low your current position is. All you have to decide is what to do with your current moment.