Some of us right now are keeping bridges in our lives that we need to burn. There are seasons we go through where we feel like we can't let go of anybody because we are too afraid of hurting someone's feelings. Sometimes we get too attached to people that are no good for us because we just do not know enough about creating our own understanding of self worth.

I want to go into that self worth part first. A lot of us allow others to define our self worth and we allow others to tell us what we can be. We do this a lot of times because we do not trust ourselves enough to understand our value without the help of others. The problem with this though, among many other problems, is that we give ourselves power over our lives when we do this. This can be detrimental to us even when the people we are allowing to define us are good intentioned because determining someone else's self worth is really just too much responsibility for someone to have and they will most likely crumble under the pressure. On the other hand, some people in your life that you give this kind of power to will be toxic. They will start to bring you down and you will start to believe that you deserve all of the negative things that you get from their relationship because they are defining what you deserve.

Here is the bottom line: When someone in your life represents a bridge that leads you to pain, depression, self hatred, and just general negativity, then you have got to let go of that relationship and burn that bridge without ever looking back. This is not about being nice or preserving a relationship. This is about what is best for both people involved. If you are telling yourself that you can't cut them off just because you have known them for a long time then you are also not being logical and you are not looking out for yourself. It is not selfish to look out for yourself and protect yourself from people that are only trying to hurt you and bring you down. You have got to start being more particular about the bridges you allow in your life. When people lead you to encouragement and feeling good about yourself and your place in the world then they represent a good bridge in your life.

I want to be clear that I am not saying to never forgive. Friends will make mistakes in your life and that doesn't mean that you should simply cut them off whenever they slip up or accidentally lead you down the wrong path. The bridges you need to burn are from the people who are constantly leading you down the wrong path and don't seem to care or have any intention of improving. Eventually you need to do what is best for you and everybody involved and burn the bridge and move on.

It all starts with you.