No matter what your behaviour is, what you say, what your lifestyle and goals are, there are people who think they are wiser than you and rush to throw in opinions and try to influence your thinking and actions. We receive plenty of useful and useless advice, masquerading as opinions, almost everywhere.
Opinions come in different hues and strengths. While some opinions are mere expressions of their feelings, some are elevated to the status of mandatory advice with dire consequences, if ignored.
Unfortunately, instead of gaining acceptance and friendships based on how well you meet other people’s expectations, the only effects of such behaviour are disappointment, low self-esteem, and plenty of mental anguish.
Some of the reasons why people give opinions are their own ego which needs to assert its own superiority, a showoff that they can control you, some vested interests, an uncontrollable urge to throw in their weight, etc. Positively, but rarely, it can also be due to their genuine love, affection and care for your well-being. Regardless of their motive, if you are either helpless or ignorant, you've no choice but to comply with their opinions; however, if you are mature enough, you make a choice either to discard or filter opinions concerning you.
When a decision involves only you, stand firm if others try to thrust their opinions on you. Be calm and listen to them but politely tell them that you are comfortable doing things your way and ask their indulgence to accept them.
While some opinions seem to be valuable in life, problems arise when we empower such opinions with greater value than they deserve and start depending on them, followed by changing our conduct and behaviour accordingly.
We must learn the art of evaluating others’ opinions and knowing when to discard and when to use them. We should discover hidden selfish motives, if any, in such opinions and be able to understand whether or not they are beneficial to us before converting them to actions.
Regardless of our choice, we must cross-check with our own intuition. Because intuition is a vast reservoir of related and valuable information possessed by our subconscious mind; it is always supported by divine powers.