Excellent Advice from Maya Angelou By “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.” – Maya AngelouNow there’s something I wish I had known at 18, instead of waiting until I was in my 40s!I know I made far too many others priorities throughout my life, when they only saw me as one of many options. This came from my unfortunate habit of not valuing myself fully. Get some self-respect early on. Don’t wait.“I do not trust people who don’t love themselves and yet tell me, “I love you.” There is an African saying, which is: “Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.”Here’s another invaluable idea. How could anyone ever love you as you deserve, if they have no love for themselves? They have nothing to give… be on the look out for them!“Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.”We have such a fear of expressing good clean anger in this culture, especially as women. Don’t sit on your anger and be bitter. Don’t let it eat at you. Tell the person who hurt or betrayed you how angry you are, and then MOVE ON!And don’t mistake hurt for anger. Feel the injustice done to you as the only emotion that can protect you from future hurt. Get angry and defend yourself against future injustice.And finally, Maya said: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”Don’t be too hard on yourself for past mistakes. If you had known better you would have done better. Now you do.Go out in the world and DO BETTER!“Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!” – MayaLaura Lee Carter, MA Counseling Psychology, the writer behind the popular online Midlife Crisis Queen, has been helping others turn midlife difficulties into opportunities for personal change since 2007. Besides working as a psychotherapist, Laura Lee has authored a number of books and e-books on midlife transformation. Don’t miss her new bookFind Your Reason to Be Here: The Search for Meaning in Midlife. Follow her on Twitter: @midlifequeenShare this: