I believe the ultimate freedom comes the day we stop caring what others think.
And wow has that been a struggle for me over the years. I’m still not even close to figuring out this freedom, but I can confidently say I’m closer than I was a year ago, and a lot closer than I was 5 years ago.
Before we dive into this topic, we must first understand that with 99% of everything we try to accomplish in this world, we are all works in progress (hence Human BeComing). But life and growth are found in what we try – in striving to become more and in action.
When faced with worry, focus on what YOU are doing and what YOU are trying to get better at.
Because when you think about it, almost everything that we’re worried about is going to be gone in the blink of an eye. The people that are criticizing us, and those that we criticize as well. The worry about how people view us or numbers on social media - it’s fleeting and won’t matter in a day, month and most certainly won’t matter a year from now. So all of this hand wringing and concern is nothing but wasted time and effort.
Spoiler alert: 9 out of 10 people that we think care about what we’re doing today, the mistakes we’ve made, or the successes we’ve had - they actually do not. They’re ultimately too busy with what’s going on in their own lives, so the stories we tell ourselves are usually just that. Instead, we need to channel our thoughts and efforts back to our own lives and how we can become a better version of ourselves. We have, on average, 60,000 thoughts per day, and unfortunately research has found that almost 80% of them can be negative, so imagine if those thoughts were turned towards growth. The only person and attitude we can control is ours, so start focusing now on what you can do:
To become a better mother.
To become a better husband.
To become a better friend.
To become a better engineer.
To become a better barista.
To become a better son or daughter.
The name on the back of your jersey is who you represent. Strive to be a man or woman of integrity, discipline, honor and respect. Bust your butt from sunup to sundown to conquer these attributes and I assure you everything else will start to fall into line. Live by these traits and strive to get better at them every day and you won’t be distracted by the noise of others.
Go after what you want to do. What excites you! What wakes you up in the morning and what keeps you working into the night!
Put your blinders on to protect yourself.
Pick your direction.
Pick your pace.
Pick your attitude.
And go run your race.
by Joey Welling