Quotes & Sayings About Letting Others Define You

Because we're not gay or straight, good or bad, single or married. We're human, and that means we're all sorts of things, and I know you don't want to hear one of my stupid ideas right now, but think about how often we're told to choose. Our whole lives we're asked to. Which team, which army, which political party? Even when that choice is hard, goes against what the majority considers acceptable, we still fail ourselves by letting it define us.
(Victor) — Jay Bell

At any given point you can release your greatest self. Don't let anyone hold you back. Don't let anyone dilute you. Don't be peer pressured into being less than you are. People willing to dilute themselves for the sake of others is one of the great tragedies of our time. Stop letting others define and set the pace for your life. Get out there and be your best. Do your best. Live your best. Make every day count and you'll see how exponentially more exciting, thrilling, successful, happy and full your life will be. — Steve Maraboli

The world needs people who have survived mistakes, tragedies, and trials to help the rest of us through. Where would we be if Victor Frankl had never experienced what he did during the war? He wouldn't have used his experiences to benefit millions of people around the world.
The world needs you to let go of self-pity and shame regarding your life experiences, too. The world needs you to use the things you have learned for good. Stop letting your past mistakes define you and affect your value. Let go of separation and victimhood and find meaning in what you have been through. — Kimberly Giles

STOP letting your troubles define you! RISE above them by choosing to move on and leave them all behind you. — Timothy Pina

My definition of confidence is how you feel about yourself, and not letting the external world define you. — Bonnie St. John

Know that God has a plan for your life. Turn your life over to him every day. Stop looking outside yourself for validation and approval-you're letting other people define your happiness. Instead of trying so hard to manipulate life, take care of yourself on the inside. Then all those other attributes you're so desperately seeking will find you eventually. — Trisha Yearwood

I believe that to create real wealth one must be willing to abandon
one's limited thinking, remove the boundaries around our abundance,
and stop outlining how it is to appear in our lives. Remember not to
create boundaries and remember not to define the outcome. Most
importantly, stop letting people who are motivated by jealousy and
envy dictate what your limitations are. — Ziad K. Abdelnour

Letting my experience carry me on, in a direction which appears to be forward, toward goals that I can but dimly define, as I try to understand at least the current meaning of that experience. — Carl R. Rogers

I've grown accustomed to the stars above my head as I sleep, the ache in my muscles as we walk the land. The freedom that comes with defining your world instead of letting it define you. — Amy Engel

You are here with a unique purpose. Stop letting others define you. Stop letting others dilute you. Don't be bullied or pressured into being less than you are. — Steve Maraboli

Self-preservation is to hunker down in the suffocating confines of this infinitesimally tiny existence that I define as 'me,' instead of letting 'me' run through the infinitely massive expanse of everything that is not me. And if the beast of self-preservation does not permit such freedoms, I will preserve myself to my own death. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

You have the strength to push back against what others are making you think or do. You use that muscle of confidence. In the same way, joy is from the inside out, and not letting the things on the outside define you. — Bonnie St. John

I don't quite know what a record is anymore. I don't quite know how to describe it. Don't know how to define it yet, so I'm just letting it gestate, and grow and see if maybe I'll get a better sense of what a record is. — Michael Nesmith

Never letting the competition define you. Instead, you have to define yourself based on a point of view you care deeply about. — Tom Chappell

Some runners judge performance by whether they won or lost. Others define success or failure by how fast they ran. Only you can judge your performance. Avoid letting others sit in judgment of you. — Hal Higdon

She had been so vulnerable, and Norah wanted only to protect her. But that vulnerability was tied to a massive mistake, a perception of herself too damaged to love. If Norah got anything from this book, it's that we're all damaged. The tragedy is letting it define you. — Ellen Meister

Letting an emotion move through you is healthy. Letting an emotion define you is not. — Chip Conley

Award trophies, as opposed to letting the players define and claim their own. Ultimately, pay them to play so that their activity not only resembles work but is work. — John Thorn

You were many wonderful things to many people before you met him
don't let this one event define who you are. — Mary Esselman

The Tao Te Ching is partly in prose, partly in verse; but as we define poetry now, not by rhyme and meter but as a patterned intensity of language, the whole thing is poetry. I wanted to catch that poetry, its terse, strange beauty. Most translations have caught meanings in their net, but prosily, letting the beauty slip through. And in poetry, beauty is no ornament; it is the meaning. It is the truth. We have that on good authority. — Ursula K. Le Guin

Forgiveness means saying that you're not going to let what happened to you define you any longer. — Heidi Priebe

Getting into the character is difficult and letting go of your life and the things that kind of define you, whatever it is in life that's your daily routine because you sort of find yourself in this other life and that's difficult and the other end is difficult. — Joaquin Phoenix

My definition of courage is never letting anyone define you. — Jenna Jameson

There is wisdom in not letting anyone really know who you are or what you are like. If you define yourself, people hold you in their mind a certain way making it difficult to change. — Frederick Lenz

Many people hold onto a grudge because it offers the illusion of power and a perverse feeling of security. But in fact, we are held hostage by our anger. It is never too late to forgive. But you can forgive too soon. I am especially wary of what I call "saintly forgiveness." Premature forgiveness is common among people who avoid conflict. They're afraid of their own anger and the anger of others. But their forgiveness is false. Their anger goes underground. I define forgiving as letting someone back into your heart. This returns us to a loving state -- and not merely within the relationship -- we feel good about ourselves and the world. True forgiveness isn't easy, but it transforms us significantly. To forgive is to love and to feel worthy of love. In that sense, it is always worthwhile. — Robert Karen

There are conversations going on about the Church constantly. Those conversations will continue whether or not we choose to participate in them. But we cannot stand on the sidelines while others, including our critics, attempt to define what our Church teaches ... We are living in a world saturated with all kinds of voices. Perhaps now, more than ever, we have a major responsibility as Latter-day Saints to define ourselves, instead of letting others define us. — M. Russell Ballard

I don't think that trauma is an illusion; there is no question in my mind that circumstances beyond our control can shape and define us. But ultimately, we make choices about letting ourselves be defined by our pasts. — Christina Baker Kline

Sannyas means dropping the fight with the river, going with the river, allowing the river to take you, learning the art of let-go. Those two small, simple words 'let', 'go', define the very spirit of sannyas. Then one can say 'Let thy kingdom come, thy will be done.' Then one withdraws one's will, and the moment you withdraw your will your life becomes immensely rich. Suddenly the whole is with you, and we can be victorious only when the whole is with us. — Rajneesh

Politics isn't what defines a person, and it shouldn't define a relationship. I made the mistake of letting that intrude on my relationships. — Patti Davis

To be free to roam our own consciousness and be responsible for ourselves, a letting go process is required. We have to let go of how others define us; what damaging messages remain from childhood; how others define our relationship with the creator; and what expectations they may have for us. — David W. Earle

I finally realized that I had to embrace the madness, let it transform me instead of letting it define me.

....

"You, my ferocious girl, are embracing the madness. Lean into it, won't ya? — R.L. Haas

I am often tempted to think of success in terms that are defined by others: records sold, popularity gained, album reviews, etc. These are impossible demands, however, and they can never be satisfied. Letting finite others define our worth is a horrible way to live. Only the Infinite Other [God] has the authority to do this. — Jon Foreman

But as you are surely aware, forgiveness doesn't mean you let the forgiven stomp all over you once again. Forgiveness means you've found a way forward that acknowledges harm done and hurt caused without letting either your anger or your pain rule your life or define your relationship with the one who did you wrong. — Cheryl Strayed