No One Actually Cares About You

How to overcome the fear of criticism

A drab story title and a happy-looking photo; they are a bit at odds with each other, aren’t they?

But that’s the beauty of it!

It came as a big surprise and I couldn’t seem to get the thought out of my head.

I was doing the laundry last night and listening to an interview between Tom Bilyeu and a billionaire. I love listening to billionaires because I’m going to be one soon!

The school of thought about how infinitesimal we are in the grand scheme of things is nothing new to me, but it hit a different spot yesterday.

I do not remember the exact words used, but I know it was profound to me.

Before I get into that, here’s a little back story about me:

I grew up in a conservative family so subconsciously, I’ve always tried not to make waves. I was brought up to draw as little attention to myself as possible.

This mindset has stopped me from taking some chances I should have taken and led me to make some choices which, in retrospect, turned out to be the wrong ones.

From being excessively conscious about projecting the right image to continuously overthinking the process up to the point where I was projecting no image at all — analysis paralysis.

I subjected my personal image to random public interpretation which turned out to be a recipe for disaster.

It really is not advisable to play Russian Roulette with one’s reputation in the digital age we live in.

I completed a course on personal branding, but I’ve been stuck in my head about what image I would be presenting to people.

I could sell myself as several things and I was not entirely sure which one to choose.

Then it came to me.

No one actually cares.

No cares about you because they are busy worrying about what other people think about them.

So you just go do your thing and forget about everyone else for a moment. Why should you take such a risk? This is because the people you are trying to impress (people you don’t even like) are dealing with their stuff and don’t have the time to nitpick everything you do.

So do you have a crazy idea? Get started on it! Is there someone you want to talk to? Reach out to them! Need to grow your business? Why don’t you take that first step?

People are not going to notice anyway.

If they do, they might send some positive energy your way — win-win! If they react negatively, who cares? You’re way better off than the person still saying, “what if?”

Here’s to living above the fear of criticism from other people.

Cheers!