“Just stop caring about what other people think!” – people on the internet

Hi Friends, 

I have been a victim of overthinking for a lot of my life. The one who analyzes everything. The one who can read a room. The one who can overanalyze an entire conversation for days. 

It used to pigeonhole me into hyper-fixating on what other people thought about me and I want to break this down a little bit. 

You might be thinking, “okay, well I don’t” care about what other people think! I am free of those kinds of worries.” and my question to you is “Are you that way in every facet of your life? Are you that way when you walk into a room of people you don’t know?” If the answer is yes, then woohoo my friend, you have arrived. 

If the answer is no, let’s unpack that from a different lens. I’ve never heard anyone talk about it from a Life Context perspective so I want to start there. 

I see these reels on Instagram talking about how to be more authentic or live your best life and almost all of them say “Just stop caring about what other people think!” or “The ones who mind don’t matter and the ones who matter don’t mind” or “The people who are judging you aren’t paying your bills!” 

And cool – all of that is true but I’ve never once thought to myself “ah yes, thank you internet person for telling me to stop caring about what other people think. I will stop immediately! I do not care anymore! My life is very grand and I feel at ease now!” 

I don’t think most people read those and heed that advice immediately and integrate it into every situation they encounter. 

Here is what I think we should talk about instead: Living from Your Life Context

Living from your life context means filtering everything you do through the way you want you life to look and feel. So, for example, for me, living from my life context has to bring me peace, joy, or freedom. If it doesn’t bring me those things, I don’t want it. 

So, as I’m sure you know by now, I love making sketch comedy videos on instagram. I have not once thought “I wonder what everyone is going to think!” and have always thought “Making this video is bringing me so much joy!” When I lean into my life context definition of joy, I throw out the option for wondering what other people think. It’s not about them; it’s about my joy. 

Same thing goes for this blog or this new business venture I will be launching very soon. Writing is something I have loved for so long. I have been doing it forever. I was so tired of making huge instagram posts when I had a lot to say. Now, I have this blog where I get to express myself, share my thoughts, ideas, and favorite stories. It’s was never about “What will they think?” or “Will they like my writing?” It was always about living from my life context and doing the thing that brought me the most joy and in this case is writing this blog. 

So, I ask you – all of the things you’ve held back on because you were afraid of what other people would think, can you now reframe that by defining your life context? 

I will be writing much more about living from your life context in the next few weeks and launching the date for a webinar that’s all about it very soon. If you want to be the first to know, you’ll can sign up here. 

With so much love, 

Mary