Everyone seems to have an opinion about things you should do. Your mother says this. Your boyfriend says that. Your coworkers and friends think something else. The hardest (and perhaps most painful) part of listening to all this is to then decipher what your opinion is independent from others. So you agree with Jen? And you disagree with Matt? That’s great, but what do you think? We’d like to think that everyone around us wants the best for us, but my very cynical side says that there tends to be some conflict of interest for almost every opinion you can get. It takes an incredible amount of self confidence to separate your own opinion from all of the other muddled noise you hear.