"Friendly" Fire

I've noticed that people like to give friendly advice which really can be identified as a form of covert sabotage or friendly fire from unrecognized sources. What I mean is the people that you consider friends who like to say "you've lost enough weight already" or "you'll never recapture your youth so why keep trying?" or "you're starting to look kind of thin" or .... All of these things are designed to get you to stop your successful actions and remain within the status quo. The most common phrase I've heard has to do with the old "you'll never look like you did before the children again". I almost started to believe all of this until I realized that all of this was coming from people who had failed at their own diet attempts in the past and who are satisfied with the way that they look because of their own lower expectations. Then I realized that what they wanted was for me to go into agreement with their own lack of success so that they wouldn't feel bad about themselves. The whole point I'm making is that we should all strive for our own personal best and not settle for what everyone else thinks our best should be. Otherwise, mediocre results are what we will expect and receive.