What other people think of you is none of your business

What other people think of you is none of your business.

If you start to make that business your business, you will be offended for the rest of your life.

How well do you do this in practice?

I think I managed to learn this in my early teens but I recognise that it isn't the same for everyone, and of course that's not to say that it never happens, but it's rarer and rarer the older I get.

Very well, I think, most of the time.

I always like a couple of quotes 'you wouldn't care what people thought of you if you knew how little they really did' and 'no one can make you feel inferior without your consent'.

I am pretty independent and even during high school and uni was more than happy with my own company. I never felt a need to change myself to fit in, though of course I wanted to be liked too.

Pretty much all the time, I treat people as I want to be treated and if I feel I have been understood then how they think of me is up to them not me, for people close to me they either know if I annoy them they are free to tell me, I do

the same and I am honest (not rude but truthful) with them.

I dont do mind games and expect the same in return. So people have to take me as they find me or tell me

I hit a point in my teens where I stopped giving a shit what anyone thought of me. To be honest I probably took it too far through my 20s, I was a very angry person and I think at times my not giving a shit actually hurt people unintentionally. In my thirties I toned it down so I still didn’t give a shit what people thought, but I wasn’t doing it in an adversarial way and I try to always start from kindness.

The exception to this is interactions that impact my kids, so school stuff mainly. I don’t mind what people think of me in that context, but I am conscious of the flow on effects for my kids so at times I pull back.

It hit me at about 20. And thank god it did because I was such an anxious and shy kid it would have ruined my life if I hadn't found my way out of it. These days I'm pretty good at not giving a shit what most people think of me. There are still people who I want to make a good impression on, but that just means giving them the best version of who I really am, not being someone I'm not.