Your Daily Focus: 6,948,896,615
What you think of me is none of my business.
I love this phrase. At first it sounds great, and then one starts thinking of all the reasons it isn’t true. If you are in a service or sales industry, you may believe it is important for your customers and clients to like you, and think highly of you. You may want your family and friends to think highly of you, and agree with you on many things.
But if you let the phrase sink in a little deeper, you may realize it is an essential perspective to live an expanded and joyful life. It speaks of never altering your thinking or your behavior to please another. You may even think this idea sounds wrong as well, but think about it this way: There are reportedly 6,948,896,616 people on the planet this morning. If you try to please any one of them, you will have to work towards trying to please them all.
I believe it is easier to try to please just one person than to go after the other 6,948,896,615. It is obviously an impossible task, so you might as well be true to yourself, and let others who need to judge judge in whatever way most pleases them. If they think you are terrible, let them, and ignore it. If they think you are immature, insensitive, slow, unfocused or have your priorities wrong, let them, and ignore it. If they think you are fantastic and totally agree with you, let them, and ignore it.
Let all the others have their own opinions and their own priorities, and their own thoughts. You go ahead and have yours. Do not let anyone else’s opinion of you color anything you do, anything you want, or any way you think.
There is ultimately only one person’s opinion of you that matters… YOU!
Hi Dr. Rick,
This was a great reminder for me this morning. Thank You!
thanks this comes at a wonderful moment. have a ex and daughter that have some strong negative opinions of me and it is great to be reminded that those opinions are theirs, and i need to work on my own feelings of self worth.
daughter hit some nerves, yet i can take a few tidbits and incorporate the ones I WISH TO,
and leave the rest.
for a person who has lived her life feeling good when others feel good, co dependent on others
feelings and intuitive enough to get myself into trouble, this is a great growth opportunity for me.
Thank You. I needed this message today! This is the best ways to live. People’s opinion can be cruel and untrue. People judge on appearance in which many times is not true judgment of a person but rather a reflection of the moment.
Raymond
July 15,2011 at 1:14PM
I am quite thankful to you for this reminder
as this is one aspect that gets me worried every time,
that is,in trying to please other people in order not to
generate ill feeling.
I will learn to handle that.
Thank You.
This quote is a fine reminder when one IS consciously living according to one’s carefully considered ideals. Even then, the concerns of others regarding our behavior can often serve as a wonderful lesson in living in cooperation. One need not change one’s ideals to discover a better way to coexist. I think problems emerge when we confuse behavior with identity, or seek our worth in the opinion of others.