Why do we care so much about what other people think of us?  Why?  If you have the answer please let me know!

We hold ourselves back so much by stopping and questioning ourselves with the concern of ‘what will people think’.  What does it matter what they think?  What other people think of you, is none of your business, we all need to concentrate on living our lives in the best way that we can, to be happy within ourselves with the path that we are on, if we’re not happy with it, change it, regardless of what people think.

I am of the firm belief that if I’m not hurting anyone, then it doesn’t matter what I wear or do!  Sure, I want people to like me, but I know that not everyone is going to, not everyone is going to agree with who I am and what I do, but I’ve learnt that I can’t change that about them, it’s their choice to not like me and I shouldn’t try and bend over backwards to make them like me, I’m just wasting my time and energy.

My son was up at Port Macquarie a year ago visiting friends, when walking along the road he found a Viking helmet – you know the one with the horns on either side?  He thought, it was cool, stuck it on his head and walked around the town wearing this Viking helmet – people tooted their horns at him, waved at him and one girl pulled over and said ‘love your helmet!’.  When he was telling me this story, I have to say I was so proud of him, truly proud, why?  Because he didn’t CARE what others thought, he had some harmless fun and in doing so, he made other people laugh and brighten their day, even if to shake their heads thinking ‘what an idiot’!!!   Honestly at that point, I thought “I’ve brought him up right”.  He is confident in his skin, he doesn’t care what others think but not in the sense that he is cruel or nasty, he just has fun and is able to laugh at himself.

Why do we all not do that? Why do we live our lives by what ‘others think’?  By living our lives like that we are stopping ourselves from achieving and doing so much, we are possibly also stopping ourselves from being genuinely happy, and what for?  As an adult you don’t need people’s approval, whether family or strangers, as long as you’re not hurting others than it shouldn’t matter what you do.

Just remember that as children we don’t care what people think of us, as teenagers and in our 20s and 30s we wonder what people are thinking about us, in our 40s, 50s and 60s we wonder what people thought of us and when in our 70s and beyond we realise people weren’t thinking of us at all!!!

So go and take the chance, live your life as you want to do and don’t give a moments thought to what others are thinking, because more than likely they’re not thinking anything at all.