When I was told the news it didn’t bother me at all. In fact, I didn’t think twice about it. I know I’m a good person: I make mistakes all the time but my intentions are good and I treat everyone with respect.

It was only later in the evening when I was talking to my girls about the importance of being comfortable in your own skin that I stopped and considered just how differently I handled not being liked now, compared to how I would have dealt with it before the experience that changed my perspective on life.

Before, I would have taken it personally. I would have been insulted someone had got me so wrong.  Now I don’t take it personally at all. Because I believe myself to be a good person, then logically it follows that this person’s dislike of me is not about me, it’s about them.

Before, because I would have been upset, I would have started treating them with disdain; in the exact manner that would have only served to reinforce their negative opinion of me. Now I treat them the same way I have treated them in the past, and the same way I treat others: nicely!

I’m not going to change who I am and how I act because of them and their beliefs. That would be re-active. I’m going to be who I am, regardless of what others think of me, i.e pro-active. 

When you feel confident in who you are you trust yourself more than you trust the opinions of others. Once you learn this you are not reliant on others to make you feel good about yourself and they won’t have the power to make you feel bad about yourself. In essence, you won’t need anyone. This knowledge is critical in learning to be awesome on your own.

A final word of advice: no matter who you are in the world, whether you are Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela, there will always be a portion of the population who will dislike you regardless of how amazing you are, or how much good you do. So be at peace with who you are, because you are awesome.