Have More Faith in Yourself

‘At age 20, we worry about what others think of us.
At age 40, we don’t care what they think of us.
At age 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all.’

~ Ann Landers (1918-2002)

I posted this on Facebook last week and I don’t think I’ve ever had so much response! It touched a chord with many of you. I thought about it and wondered what it was that resonated?

Here are my thoughts –

Some of us really have got to that point where we really don’t care what others think of us and that is extraordinarily liberating. It frees us to make true decisions for our life (both major and seemingly inconsequential) without the fear of judgment from others.
Some of us are thinking I really ought not to care about what others think….but….what if I’m judged, laughed at, talked about…?
And some of us will be somewhere between the two!

I want to teach this to my children and to other young people. Today they are caught up even more so than when we were young in the need to conform with the group and it takes courage to stand out and stand up for themselves. Let us help them do so by sharing this quote from Ann Landers.

I find to a degree that many of my clients are coming to terms with this as well. We reach that point in midlife where we are in transition. We could carry along the same path doing the same as we’ve always been doing, or we could step out of our comfort zone, decide we want to do something different and have reached that age where we are no longer ruled by what others want for us, think we ought to be or do.

I have learned through experience that people are so very much caught up in their own lives to have the time or the inclination to be worrying about us….their stuff consumes them completely.

Do you believe so?

Does that liberate you?

Will you step out?