Chasing everybody’s approval is a game with no final level. Aim for respect from people you’d want to be like.

Approval from everyone is impossible because the crowd never agrees with itself. Please one part of it and you have disappointed another, so the effort never resolves and never ends. Respect from a few people you actually admire is a target that can be hit.

Name three people whose judgment you would trust about your own life. When a decision feels murky, picture explaining it to them rather than to the wider audience in your head. If it holds up with those three, the rest of the noise can stay noise.