"We all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own"

Thanks for reading. This is the 55th edition.

Marcus Aurelius wrote this some 2,000 years ago. And he starts out his quote by saying, "it never ceases to amaze me." And it is amazing that we all suffer from FOPO, fear of other people's opinions.

I've written kinda, sort of about this before, but I think it's worthy of another reminder.

"How will my actions be perceived?" "Will they like what I have to say?" A million of these questions can go through our head subconsciously. And while I'll argue we should care about others and how they feel, that alone should not shape our actions.

FOPO has plagued humans forever but on the road to happiness and fulfillment, we need to be aware of this and try to fight against the power it can have over us.

I can tell you, from my experience, FOPO has frozen me from time to time and held me back from instincts that I've felt strongly about. Really great ideas that I was afraid the masses wouldn't like or understand.

And this quote is confirming for me that we can't ever really get away from these thoughts-and maybe they should help drive us-but we can't let them weigh on us so heavy.

Awareness of why we're making our decisions this week. Is it for us or is it to please someone else?

Our opinions on other people's perceptions of us are usually wrong. Those people aren't even keeping score and are so wrapped up in their own thing anyway, as well they should be.

So, actually go with an instinct you have and see what happens.

Leaders are often born from someone standing up for what they believe in, often in times when it's against the norm.

And, if you are judging someone else based on an action, I challenge you to really dive in and empathize with them.

The majority of people we have in our lives are here to be good humans, so try to see their point of view. You can and should listen to their opinions, just don't care too much about 'em!

Consider sharing.