Stop Taking Things Personally

Do you want to know what the best part of life is? The best part of life is the fact that you can be whoever you want to be. You can be an astronaut, a police officer, or a CEO of your own company. Seriously, the opportunities are endless. Still, for some reason, we don’t follow our passions or trust our instincts. Instead, we listen to the thoughts of others to determine what we do with our lives. Not any more. It is time for you, and only you to pave your own future. But in order to do so, you need to trust me and stop taking things personally.

Imagine if you did not take anything in life personally. Odds are, you would feel more free and more happy than you have ever felt before. You would literally be able to do anything that you wanted to and you wouldn’t have to worry about being judged. The only reason that we are not living our life to the maximum potential and the reason we are not doing the things that we love, is because we are too concerned with what others will think about us.

Everyday that we are true to ourselves, we should expect to be judged by those around us. Our individual personalities should make others feel uncomfortable. Not in a bad way, but in a way that is different than what people are used to. Not everyone is going to have the same opinions as you do, so it only makes sense that our individual actions are going to make them feel uncomfortable. If you are not making others feel uncomfortable by some of your actions, then you are not being your true self. This means that you are spending your time worrying about what others think, and adapting to the specific likings of each different person.

I was listening to the Earn Your Happy Podcast by Lori Harder today on my drive to work. In the episode, she said “When we worry about what people think, we are literally putting ourselves in our own prison.” Think about how accurate this statement is. When we cater our lives to the opinion of other people, all of our unique attributes are being locked away with no chance to escape. Everybody is going to have a different opinion, so no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to live your life the way it was actually meant to be lived.

Start living freely by doing a better job at saying “yes” to yourself. Do what you want to, and live the life that you were meant to live. If somebody does not like you for being your true and authentic self, simply forget about their opinions and just ignore them. Odds are you will not even remember what they said about you the following week, so why put even the slightest bit of thought into it? Do not go through your life living it based on the opinion of others, live based on the opinion of yourself. You need to live for your own freedom and truth instead of living for everybody else’s.

As humans, we think that we know it all. When you become yourself and show your differences, people are going to tell you how they feel or what they are thinking. It happens because thats just how life is. When this does happen, (and like I said, it will) you have two choices. You can either soak in their words and live your life based off of somebody else’s beliefs, or you can hear their words, let go of what they say, and be yourself. It is completely your choice to believe what others say or believe what they think. You are the only one that truly understands yourself, so your opinion of yourself should be the only one that truly matters.

With that said, there are a very small amount of exceptions. For me, I will really only listen to two additional opinions other than my own; my mom and dad. While I am going to be myself around them, if they say something that causes me to question myself, I will listen. I might now change, but I will at least take consideration. Instead of adapting my life to their opinion right away, it should instead spark a conversation on what they are seeing versus what I am feeling.

Before I wrap up today’s post, I want you to remember one thing. What I am about to say is a fact, not an opinion. Anytime that somebody negatively judges you or tries to diminish you in anyway, they are only doing so to mask their own insecurities. To cover up their own flaws, they shift the negative attention onto somebody else. I am not going to sit here and say that I have never bullied someone before, because that would be a lie. But when I was voicing negative opinions towards others, it was for the exact reason above. It was to shift the negative opinions that others had on me, onto someone else.

We are all different, we are all special in our own and unique ways, and we are all human. Don’t expect everyone to like you, because if you do, it means that you are not being true to yourself. You are the only person that can set your future, and you are the only person that can live the life that you were intended to live. Show your true colors, accept your differences, and be true to yourself. Once you commit to being true to who you are, you will stop taking things personally.

Michael Bonnell

6/30/2018

 

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