3） WHAT’S THE WORST CASE SCENARIO – REALLY?
By the off-chance someone gossips about you or makes a snarky comment, so what? What’s the worst that can happen?
Even if you do feel terribly self-conscious and embarrassed, the feeling will only be temporary. And you will come away proud that you have been true to yourself.
4）LET GO OF THE ILLUSION THAT YOU CAN CONTROL WHAT OTHERS THINK.
People will judge you. People will whisper about you. People will hate you. And there’s nothing you can do about it.
Yes, you can strive to please each and every person who comes into your life, but do you really think you can avoid judgement? Every single person on the face of the planet has been judged by another. You are no special or different from the rest.
Letting go of the illusion of control takes conscious effort as often this habit is unconscious. Therefore whenever you’re in a difficult situation, you may like to repeat as a mantra, “I surrender control. I love the person I am.”
5）LEARN HOW TO RESPOND TO NAYSAYERS.
I remember that a major source of angst for me in the past was that I didn’t know how to respond to critical people. How do you keep your cool in the face of disparaging comments and reactions? It took me a while to realize that the best way to respond was acknowledging the other person’s thoughts, but still standing my ground.
Here’s an example: “I understand that you think my dislike of alcohol sucks, but that’s the person I am.” Being assertive in the face of naysayers also requires repeating yourself sometimes, e.g. “I prefer to stay here. I know you want me to go. But I will be staying here. I need to work.”
6）YOU’RE ALLOWED TO MAKE MISTAKES: IT’S HUMAN.
If you care too much about what others think, you’ll likely be a perfectionist. You’ll probably have extremely high expectations of yourself and you’ll likely find it hard to forgive yourself. But remember this: everyone at some point in life obsesses over how others perceive them. Accept this reality without beating yourself up. You’re allowed to make mistakes: you’re human. You set the rules in life remember.
So next time you’re worrying about what people think, be kind with yourself. None of us are perfect, nor can we ever be.
7） REDISCOVER YOUR OWN VOICE.
The importance we put in the voices of others often smothers out our own. What would your authentic voice, personality and life look like? Spend time exploring this question and strive to fulfill your discoveries.
8）LIFE IS TOO SHORT.
Finally, taking a big-picture perspective helps immensely with caring too much about what other’s think. You could die any day … do you really want to spend your life wound up pleasing others? On your deathbed, will people’s opinions really matter? No, they won’t. Aim to live life to the fullest so you have no regrets.
Source: https://lonerwolf.com/how-to-not-care-what-others-think/
