how I try not to care about what others think about me

As cool as I think I am, I try to remember that I’m not for everyone.

Just like how everyone is not for me.

There are plenty of people I don’t like. Do I always know why I don’t like them? Not necessarily. Some people just aren’t for me. So by default I must not be for everyone.

Maybe I remind them of their grade school bully. Or maybe I’m just too cool for them and they are jealous so they hate me.

Someone once told me, “It’s none of my business what other people think about me.”

Wow. That is a mind blower. Of course it’s none of my business.

It’s literally a waste of my mental energy to worry about what others are thinking about me.

I mean beyond the normal societal interaction stuff. I’m not going to start littering because I don’t care what others think about me. This is more aimed at the overthinkers. The people, like myself, that could stay up all night worrying about an interaction they had earlier that day that went pear-shaped and how that person probably hates them now. Meanwhile that person is sound asleep and doesn’t even remember my name or the interaction that I’m losing sleep over.

That’s where this mindset of it being none of my business is the most impactful. It’s not helpful. And it’s honestly not how I want to spend my time. If I think about my time as a precious resource, which it is, I don’t want to waste it on the lady behind me in the line at the cash register who may or may not have seen me itch my butt. Who cares? If she did, then she saw a human itching an itch. If she didn’t, then she didn’t. Either way I’m wasting my time.

I have never itched my butt in public by the way. That was just an example someone else might have done at some point.

The other thing I try to remember is how much I think about myself. I assume then that others are spending a lot of time thinking about themselves. Which means they aren’t noticing the thousands of random people they are passing by in a single day. So when I worry about whether the shade of my green shoes clashes with the shade of my green shirt. I’m probably the only person on the planet thinking about it. The other people I’m passing are at best just noticing that I’m wearing green and at worst and most likely they aren’t even aware that I’m there.

So who gives a shit. Get out there and get weird. Life is too short to give a shit what others think about me.