Do you have the tools right now to succeed in your life? Yes, you can always make the best of what you have. You can improve yourself now with the technology available. Everything is a Google Search away, which is nice. We need to be able to utilize this convenience. What has worked for me is focusing on my strengths and knowing where I am not strong. Never compete with anyone but yourself and always make sure to take notes. You do not and should not ever follow someone in life. You need to be following your heart and not others to succeed. When you receive criticism, you need to understand if it is real to you or not. That is the important part. If you can understand where the criticism is coming from, and it would make sense to you it could be happening. Now if you are feeling criticized for everything that you do then you need to look at why is this happening and do you need to distance yourself or confront the person about the issue? For me it depends on the situation. I have felt criticized at times with things that I have done, but other times I know that the criticism given was correct. An important part is do not internalize it and make the criticism personal and part of your identity. Then it can bring you down and have a negative impact on you when it should not be important. I have some issues with it now because if someone points out an issue and they are right I have immediately gotten defensive. A dreadful thing you can do is lose control of your emotions and especially when you are in the wrong. It is great being open and honest but please do not let people manipulate and use you. Respecting yourself is important as well as respecting others. Give a little to get a little. Life will test you at times and when you fail it can be painful. We do not do a diagonal climb to the mountaintop. Life can tend to go up and back down and sometimes we fall all the way back to the bottom. We then end up higher than we could ever dream. It just acts and belief that you can make it. Do you want to be an actor or be a painter? Then focus on the dreams that you have and do not stray from them. Its when things initially do not work out or do not go the way we planned in our heads, and we give up. We say we tried, and it did not work. But did we try? I think that if you care deeply about something then you cannot give up when you fail. You must keep going. Now I am not saying to never give up something. When something is no longer giving you joy or is more painful than pleasure then switch and focus on the next dream. Who says you must do the same thing for your entire life or that you cannot change or move on at any age?