Don’t waste your energy, worrying about the opinions of others.
Do your own thing and stop caring whether they like it.
How much of your time and energy do you expend trying to be something that is not you, solely for the opinions of others?
If you are expending tremendous resources working to live up to the benchmarks that others have set for you, perhaps you are missing one of the most important lessons that life has to offer.
When you are confident in your abilities and your decision-making, why would you subvert that to others?
This is not to say that others do not have potential cause or reason to offer you perspective. We would be most wise to listen to those whose perspectives on us give us a reason to feel that perhaps they are seeing qualities or variables about us that might be improved.
Yet, many of us are more than willing to start making significant changes in our overall behaviors, methodologies, and approaches, in order that we may live up to some preconceived notions of a third-party who believes that we need to be other than what we are currently.
Sometimes there are those who are more than willing to transpose their world views on us with a direct expectation that in their having done so, we are now beholden to them and as a consequence, we are thereby expected to modify whatever aspect of us they find (which they believe) needs their particular degree of modification in order that we might live up to the perspectives in which they view us.
The truth is, there are many different ways for these kinds of experiences to resolve. The most obvious solution is for us to accept their perspectives as being absolutely accurate and make a complete adjustment solely because they believe that we should.
A more moderate perspective might be to consider everything that they have shared and for us to see the truth in those variables that we deem valid and leverage those to our greater benefit.
Perhaps the last would be to politely listen and then summarily discard all that they have shared and consider that as just another person’s opinion which does not carry any weight or value in our own estimation of ourselves.
When you get to a point that the third option strikes you as your best option, you need to feel secure in the fact that you are clearly capable of finding your own path in life, and as such, you may allow these unnecessary perspectives to roll off of you like water off of the duck’s back.
Find your true qualities and treasure them, nurture them and celebrate them without fear or regard as to what anyone else may think.
Happy Sunday!
Brian Weiner 