#9: Just Say No

Here’s another slightly more important and thoughtful one. So many of us want to be people pleasers, whether it’s out of a generous urge to make others happy or a more self-focused urge to make others like you. And when you’re young, you might not realize that you don’t have to do that.

It is important to be kind, but it’s also important to set boundaries with people who are taking advantage of you. And if people are mad, just remember that, as the saying goes, “The only people who will be mad at you setting boundaries are the people who benefited from you not having them.”