“To put yourself forward as someone good enough to do interesting things is, by definition, to expose yourself to all kinds of negative judgments, and as far as I can tell, the fact that other people get to decide what they think of your behavior leaves only two strategies for not suffering from those judgments: not doing anything, or not caring about the reaction.” -Clay Shirky
I like this quote and I think there are more options available than the two he mentions (“not doing anything or not caring about the reaction“).
What might be truer to the experience of most of us is that while we do care what other people think about us, we can choose to make what we think about ourselves more important. I once heard Brooke Castillo say:
“I do want them to like me, but I want to like me and I’m not willing to trade that…I must like myself first. I will not sacrifice my own respect for myself to try to get someone else’s.”
Here’s a short video on “How to Deal With Other People’s Opinions” from my teachers Brooke Castillo and Meadow DeVor.
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