12. Write love notes to your body

The only way to stand out is to be your idiosyncratic, real, quirky self. It's easier said than done, but consider this: All those folks you look up to have taken ownership of what sets them apart and leveraged it to their advantage.

You could spend a lifetime untying the knots of your family life—but that's your choice. Conversely, at any point, you can reflect on our childhood influences and declare, "This is not my story. I am not my genes."

Show self-respect means not being overly self-critical, judgmental, or restrictive. It's so easy to chain ourselves to a to-do list and then gauge our worthiness on its completion. Practice making purposeful shifts toward self-kindness by saying to yourself as you finish one task and contemplate ...

Yes, taking action on the unknown can be scary stuff. We're never guaranteed our ideal outcome, and that can cause us to retreat, big time. But the most successful people aren't afraid to try something new. Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard, and the rest is history. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozn...

Letting others know what isn’t OK doesn’t make you a bad person; it makes you a strong and respectable person. When you stop saying yes to things you don’t want to do, you create more time and energy to engage with the activities and people that do make you happy. Here's some more advice about

Once you know what makes you feel good, continue to prioritize it—not only with yourself but with others. Lead with honesty. This means that if you know working outdoors at a farm sanctuary is what you're here to do, then you have no business working 9 to 5 at a desk job for the next decade. You'...

Many people have good intentions, but their advice is often clouded by their emotional baggage. So when someone tells you "You'll never be able to do that" or "You shouldn't" or "You can't," ignore them until you have figured out for yourself what's true.

You know the first place all of us tend to throw self-respect out the window? Yup, you guessed it: dating. I speak to countless people who have so much to offer but are stuck in a relationship that forces them to compromise some part of themselves and live in a state of numbing self-sacrifice. Th...

You must be willing to see things and people as they are. It can be painful to acknowledge that there is a problem with ourselves, our loved ones, or a situation. But if you don't deal with the problem with curiosity and courteousness, your situation will be prolonged. And that is not very respec...

First, look within and question what practices make you feel your absolute best. Then, pay yourself the respect of prioritizing them daily. For example, exercising regularly, starting every day with a green juice, and being under the covers by 10 p.m. are all ways I show myself respect.