Are you one of those people who don’t like being judged? Afraid of taking the next step in your life because it will make some people around you uncomfortable? Worried that your reputation in their eyes will nosedive with one action of yours that won’t meet their expectations? Then this post is for you.

All of us are aware of the fact that we cannot stop people from thinking about us. Whether they think good (or bad) of us is beyond our control. What we don’t realize, however, is that we shouldn’t let their thinking affect how we live our lives. Let me explain why that should be the case.
When we live our lives based on how others want it to be, our own goal posts change. We are no longer chasing the dreams whose fulfilment will fill us with happiness. We are merely allowing others to control our lives. That, as you might guess, isn’t a recipe to a happy life.

Here are six ways to stop caring what people think about you:

#1: Avoid sources of negativity
Free your life of toxic and negative people. If they work with you in your office, try to avoid them unless your work demands you meet them. If it’s one of your friends who you constantly find trying to tear you down, separate yourself from them. Here’s why you should do that.

None of us can stop others from being hateful. What we can do is to ignore their bitter behavior. The time that we will resultantly spend away from them can be consumed in doing something useful, like reading a self-help book, buying a UVC robot. They should be your confidants. or working towards your goal.

Here’s what would happen if you don’t avoid sources of negativity. You’d spend more time with people whose remarks and behavior will ruin your mood. Their gloomy outlook and pessimistic attitude will make you feel worse and allow your motivation to nosedive.

Do you want to live such a life? No one does. Which is why it’s essential that you don’t give negative persons any power on your emotions. I’d go as far as to say that a time spent with a toxic person is better spent alone, as you’d at least have control over your emotions in the latter scenario.

#2: Identify people whose opinion matters to you
While it’s important to care less about other people think, we also need someone in our life whom we can trust. This person needs to be someone with whom you are comfortable sharing your opinion, or who can give you their opinion when you aren’t doing the right thing.

Put simply, build a circle of a few people you can confide it. These should be persons who must have your best interest at heart. You should be as comfortable approaching them when facing a decision on a job change as you should be when buying a UVC led. They should be your confidants.

Here’s how you can identify such people. You always go to them whenever you’re facing a decision on an important or crucial matter. You may or may not act on their advice, sure, but you give it more weightage than you do to guidance received from other people.

Provided you already have such people in your close circle, treasure their presence. Provided you don’t have them, find them and make them a part of your life. Such people are absolute pearls. They will give you advice acting on which you can set your life on the right track.

#3: Focus on what matters
What is it that you’re trying to accomplish in life? Perhaps you’re working day and night to become an astronaut. Or you might be studying from dawn to dusk to get into civil service. Or you might be spending weekends at the office to get that promotion you’ve always craved.

Regardless of the situation you currently find yourself in, there will be two types of opinion coming your way: those that matter and those that don’t. Here’s how you can differentiate between them. Opinions that matter will be far fewer and far more precise than those that don’t.

Let me give you an example to explain this point. Imagine for a moment that you’re doing one job (you don’t like) and trying to land another (which you’ve always wanted since Day One). Your pursuit of the latter will inevitably have a downward impact on your performance in the former.

Your boss in the job you’re trying to quit may tell you the same. Take their advice but don’t take it literally. Only you know what your ultimate life goal is and what the path to it looks like. Ignore the roadblocks, U-turns and side turns that come along the way.

#4: Tell yourself that other people aren’t paying much attention
When was the last time you thought about that kid you knew in high school who failed in the final exam? How much attention have you paid to troubles going on in your first cousin’s family? If you’re like most people, you won’t be paying much attention to such matters. Here’s why.

Most of us are conditioned to be selfish. I’m not saying that in a bad way. We can pass opinion on other people’s lives, sure, but we would do that without giving much thought. That means that the other person who would take our advice literally has more chances of getting no benefit from it.

That’s the reason why you shouldn’t take other persons’ opinion about your life. All of them are busy and only think about you when they see your Facebook posts. This might set a chain reaction in their minds as to what you should be doing, as opposed to what you’re doing.

Such people don’t know what you’re going through because they don’t really care. That might sound rude but it’s what it is. They have dozens of their own problems that prevent them from giving serious thought to your problems. Take my advice and don’t take theirs seriously.

#5: Mind your own business
Imagine two types of persons. The first are those who like to please everyone. This attitude forces them to seek everybody’s opinion on what they should be doing in their life. Whenever they meet a lawyer, they think they should become one.

Their future profession would change when they would meet someone from other profession. Such type of people who seek everyone’s advice do so because they are afraid of taking responsibility for their own actions. The fear of ‘what if my decision goes wrong’ paralyzes them.

That isn’t the case with the second type of persons. Ones who don’t go around asking people what they should be doing in life. Such persons have an attitude which tells them to mind their own business. And it saves them from a lot of mental ache. Here’s how.

People who are unhappy, unsuccessful or regretful in their own lives give opinions emblematic of their pwn problems. But the other person, the one who is seeking their opinion, may not know that. That’s why one of the best ways you can stop caring what other people think is by minding your own business.

#6: Put a stop to overthinking
Most people confuse overthinking with problem-solving. They think that only the former leads to the latter. That only if they spend hours fixating on their problems will they be able to come upon solutions that would make their life troubles go away. Unfortunately that isn’t the case.

Here’s how you can differentiate between problem solving and overthinking. The former consumes most of your mental energy thinking about a solution. It’s geared more towards the ‘what would’ question. That isn’t the case with overthinking which forces your mind to dwell on the problem.

People who overthink always ask themselves one or the other variation of this question: what if I had done X differently in the past? That’s why, while overthinking makes you feel bad about your past, problem-solving makes you feel optimistic about the future.

There are multiple ways using which you can put a stop to your overthinking habit. The one that is my favorite is the ‘scheduling time to worry’ exercise. You can take one hour every week to think deep about your problems, but not a minute longer. This exercise may help you stop overthinking everything.

Conclusion
All of us want to feel accepted in our wider community. There’s nothing that we’d love more than other people rising from their seats and clapping for us the moment we arrive at a family gathering. The desire of taking center stage wherever we’re encourages us to work harder.

It might also ruin our internal peace, especially if we aren’t at that stage in our life where we have always wanted to be. That’s why it’s essential for us to be mindful of ways using which we can stop caring what other people think about us. Only then we’d be at peace with ourselves.

Gbamest but we are still humans with feelings and emotions after all.

l really concur sha!!!