Do Not Care About What Others Think
Be Your Own Person
I’ve never been one to care about how I look or what I wear, mainly because I realized not so long ago that no one cares about you, how you look, and what you do as much as you may think. People are too busy with the unpredictability of their lives to have any real lasting thoughts about you, and rightfully so.
Anyways, this ideology has been further reinforced by a simple social experiment - getting a skin cut. I shaved it all last week, rendering my whole head bare, and I noticed that people only mentioned it the first time they saw it and nothing after that. It became the 'normal'. I could even make an accurate hypothesis that they only mentioned it because it was something new to talk about and not that they actually cared.
My point is simple: we sometimes overestimate the influence people have on our lives to the point that we allow ourselves to be influenced by them.
Notice how I said it is our own estimations that give rise to this influence and not others' own inherent influences.
I would never have gotten a skin cut in secondary school because of what I felt everyone might’ve thought/said.
It’s funny how influences work in our brains. I imagined already feeling ugly looking at the mirror at home even before going to school the next day simply because of an overestimated sense of influence I’d put on others. It’s like I’d given others authority over my perceptions, thoughts, and decisions.
Looking back, the reality would've just been a few laughs from everyone in the first week and nothing thereafter.
I leave with this: do not be held back by what people may or may not say/think when making certain decisions. You have to realize that we're all alone together in this world. At the deepest level, we're alone, and every decision must be based on our own happiness and preferences.
Hitherto, you’ve been swayed by the apparent thoughts of others, well not anymore!
