My Wonderful Mom
would often tell me,
“If you’re worried
about what others
think about you,
stop.
Because they don’t.
They don’t think about you.”
You likely saw
hundreds,
perhaps thousands
of people
yesterday.
Your car passed their car.
You stood in line
behind them
at the grocery store.
You bought your coffee
from them.
How many of those people
had you thought about
before this post?
I suspect very few.
And that was yesterday.
How many of the people
you interacted with
a month ago today
do you think about?
I suspect even fewer
and I suspect
you don’t remember
the interaction you had with them
that day.
You don’t remember
their clothes,
what they said,
what they did.
“We don’t notice people
when they’re not in front of us.
Of the tens of thousands of people,
familiar and famous,
that we know,
we spend precious little time
concerned about
the ins and outs of their day.
And more poignantly,
the same is true
for the way the world
ignores our day to day
as well.
Humans’ selfish survival instinct
is to be aware of
whoever is on stage
in front of us,
and then to move on
to the next urgency.
It’s a trap to believe
that anyone in the world
is as concerned about
the noise in your head
as you are.”
Don’t allow
what people might think
about you
to stop you
from changing the world
because they don’t.
They don’t think
about you
and, if they aren’t thinking about you,
they also aren’t judging you.
You’re free from that concern.