7 Ways to Stop Fearing What Everyone Thinks of You

inShare 207Email The unhappiest people in this world are the people who care the most about what everyone else thinks. What s wrong with wanting to please others? That s what several people asked me via email in response to one of my recent arti cles. Today, I want to discuss why it s not healthy to try to please everyone, an d how to stop yourself from doing so. Seeking approval from others is perfectly fine up until the point where you are compromising your health and happiness in the process. It becomes a serious pro blem if you feel as though widespread positive approval from others is the very oxygen you need to breathe. There was a time in my life when I felt exactly thi s way. I literally felt like I was short of breath almost as if I d die if my peers didn t approve of me. This is a condition that developed in my mind when I was very yo ung, after kids in grade school teased me for being a nerd. I did everything I co uld to win their approval. And although I grew out of my awkward stage pretty e arly in my teenage years, the damage was done I was left feeling insecure. I wa s conditioned to seek and beg for outside approval at all times. The big problem was that, as a twenty-something college graduate entering the wo rk force, I felt that anything I did or even thought only had validity if it was the right thing to say and think. And by right thing, what I really mean is what ot her people thought was right. I was terrified to step outside the box of accepta bility which was especially harmful to my creativity as I tried to nurture my pa ssion for writing and blogging. Once I realized what I was doing, I read several books, spoke with a coach, and focused diligently on healing this broken part of myself. The bottom line is that constant approval-seeking forces you to miss out on the beauty of simply being yourself, with your own unique ideas and desires. If you are led through life only doing and being what you ve come to believe is expected of you, then, in a way, you cease to live. So how can you stop fearing what everyone thinks of you? Let s take a look: 1. Get comfortable with not knowing what other people think. When I first started writing on this blog, I d agonize over whether people would t hink what I was writing was good enough. I desperately hoped they d like it, and oftentimes I d catch myself imagining they didn t. Then one day I realized how much energy I was wasting worrying about it. So I ve gradually learned to relax with simply not knowing. Some problems in life, such as not knowing what others think of you, are not rea lly meant to be resolved. How people perceive you may have more to do with them than you anyway. They may even like or dislike you simply because you ve trigger ed an association in their minds by reminding them of someone they liked or disl iked from their past, which has absolutely nothing to do with you.

So here s a new mantra for you say it, and then say it again: This is my life, my c hoices, my mistakes and my lessons. As long as I m not hurting people, I need not worry what they think of me. (Angel and I discuss this in more detail in the Sel f-Love and Relationships chapters of 1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently. ) 2. Know that most people are NOT thinking about you anyway. Ethel Barrett once said, We would worry less about what others think of us if we realized how seldom they do. Nothing could be closer to the truth. Forget what everyone else thinks of you; chances are, they aren t thinking about y ou anyway. If you feel like they always are, understand that this perception of them watching you and critiquing your every move is a complete figment of your imagination. It s your own inner fears and insecurities that are creating this il lusion. It s you judging yourself that s the problem. 3. Accept that someone else s opinion is NOT your problem. How many times have you looked at a person and initially misjudged their brillia nce? Appearances are deceptive. How you seem to someone and how you actually a re rarely congruent. Even if they get the basic gist of who you are, they re stil l missing a big piece of the puzzle. What someone thinks of you will rarely con tain the whole truth, which is fine. If someone forms an opinion of you based on superficialities, then it s up to them , not you, to reform those opinions based on a more objective and rational viewp oint. Leave it to them to worry about that is, if they even have an opinion at all. Bottom line: The opinions other people have about you is their problem, not you rs. The less you worry about what they think of you, the less complicated your life becomes. (Read The Four Agreements.) 4. Ask yourself, Does what they think even matter? People will think what they want to think. No matter how carefully you choose y our words and mannerisms, there s always a good chance they ll be misinterpreted and twisted upside down by someone. Does this really matter in the grand scheme of things? No, it doesn t. How others see you is not important. How you see n you re making big decisions, remember, what you is more important than what people think of you. hamed of doing what feels right. Decide what you . yourself means the world. Whe think of yourself and your life Stay true to YOU. Never be as think is right and stick to it

5. See the benefit in being unique. If you re thinking like everyone else, you aren t thinking. And if you aren t thinkin g, you aren t truly living. It s human nature to attempt to mimic other humans we look up to perhaps a parenta l figure or a celebrity especially when we are feeling insecure in our own skin. But attempting to be someone else will always leave us feeling empty inside. Why? Because what we appreciate about the people we admire is their individuali ty the qualities that make them unique. To really copy them, we need to develop our own individuality, and in that way, we would actually be less like them and more like our true selves. We all have quirks and unique perspectives. The more relaxed you become with yo ur own differences, the more comfortable you will start to feel just being YOU. Celebrate being different, off the beaten path, a little on the weird side your

own special creation. If you find yourself feeling like a fish out of water, by all means find a new river to swim in. But DO NOT change who you are; BE who y ou are. (Read The Road Less Traveled.) 6. Be fully present and aware of how you DO want to feel. It s OK to know how you do not want to feel, but that s not all you should be thinki ng about. Imagine someone trying to learn to read by spending all their time fo cusing on how they do not want to not be able to read. It doesn t really make any sense, does it? Enough is enough! Forget what you do not want to feel for a moment. Work out h ow you DO want to feel right now in the present moment. Train yourself to live right here, right now without regretting how others once made you feel, or feari ng the possibility of future judgment. If you were delivering life-saving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on your mom in p ublic, you d be 100% focused and present. You wouldn t be thinking about what bysta nders thought of your hair, your body type, or the brand of jeans you were weari ng. All these inconsequential details would vanish from your consciousness. Th e intensity of the situation would motivate you to choose not to care about what others might be thinking of you. This proves, quite simply, that thinking abou t what others are thinking about you is YOUR CHOICE. 7. Speak and live your truth. Speak your truth even if your voice shakes. Be cordial and reasonable, of cours e, but don t tread carefully on every word you say. Push your concerns of what ot hers might think aside. Let the consequences of doing so unravel naturally. Wh at you ll find is that most of the time no one will be offended or irritated at al l. And if they do get upset, it s likely only because you ve started behaving in a way that makes them feel they have less power over you. Think about it. Why be fake? In the end, the truth usually comes out one way or the other, and when that happ ens, you re standing alone if you ve been living a lie. So live your whole truth st arting now. If someone gives you a hard time and says, You ve changed, it s not a bad thing. It just means you stopped living your life their way. Don t apologize fo r it. Instead, be open and sincere, explain how you feel, and keep doing what y ou know in your heart is right. Afterthoughts A life spent ceaselessly trying to please people who, perhaps, are incapable of ever being pleased, or trying too hard to always be seen as doing the right thing , is a sure road to a regretful existence. Do more than just exist. We all exist. The question is: Do you live? I eventually realized existing without ever truly living was not what I wanted f or myself. So I made changes I implemented all seven of the points discussed in this article and never looked back. If you are in the same place I once was, s eeking approval from everyone for every little thing you do, please take this po st to heart and start making changes today. Life is too short not to. Your turn How has the fear of what other people think interfered with your life? What has it stopped you from doing? How have you coped? Leave a comment below and shar e your insights with us.