What Other People Think of Me is None of My Business

Many people have told me over the course of my life that ““What other people think about you is none of your business.” Early in my life, and even in recent times, I had striven to be liked, to not upset people, to keep the peace, but I found all I managed to do was put myself in a twist trying to please everyone in all things.

When I  was first told this quote, “What Other People Think of me is None of my Business”, it was one of those light bulb moments. You know the one when it all seems so clear and simple. I realized in an instant that what people think about me,  truly isn’t about me. It is about them, not me. Their thoughts are not my business. It is theirs.I had been striving for the impossible. To always be thought of in the “right way” by other people. While it is “nice” to be highly thought of by others, I now understand that it is far more beneficial, and far more achievable to be highly thought of by myself.

Are you a people pleaser, but harbour deep felt resentment in doing so? It is impossible to make everyone happy with the choices we make. If you worry about getting everyone’s approval, you’d never get anywhere. If you let what others think of you become your business, it will consume all of your time and energy, draining you of the ability to move on in your life.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean being completely ignorant of others feelings, but rather their thoughts about you. You cannot change their mind by constantly worrying and stressing about what they think of you. What you can do, is be the person you are truly meant to be and feel comfortable with that. More than comfortable though, be the person that you want to spend your time with. Forget the thoughts about you from others and concentrate on the thoughts you have about yourself.

I have done a lot of  soul searching in recent years and have finally learned to accept and  love the person I am without having to put on any fronts. I no longer live my life based on what others might think of me, whether it be negative or positive. We all like to hear those positive thoughts from others, but remember that whatever the thoughts from others are, it “Is None of Our Business”. The words from others are useless unless we believe them to be true in our own hearts.

I originally wrote this article over a year ago. Recent events have highlighted what an important topic it still is to so many people around the world and I thought it was timely to re-post.

Enjoy, and remember “What Other People Think of Me is None of My Business” and in reality they probably have other things on their minds other than what you are doing 🙂

About Brenda

Read more about Brenda on the About Brenda Freeman page.
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130 Responses to What Other People Think of Me is None of My Business

  1. Ray says:

    Essentially getting along all comes down to respecting another’s rights to be themselves and don’t invade their space, physically, mentally or emotionally, or with loud noise.

    peace 🙂

  2. Othman says:

    wonderfull article , we really need to ignore others thoughts about us..!!

  3. John MacDonald says:

    Thank you so much for this. I needed to read this.

  4. suzzane says:

    This has helped me a lot, thankyou.

    • Brenda says:

      Suzzane, I am happy this article has helped you. You have taken a huge step forward by understanding that we are simply unable to please everyone all the time. By trying we, in turn are unable to be happy ourselves.

      Thank you for letting me know that this has helped you. I would love to hear from you again – please feel free to comment again and let me know your thoughts.

  5. Karen says:

    Thank you! The right message at the right time put in a clear and direct manner. With appreciation!

    • Brenda says:

      My pleasure Karen.

      It is wonderful how those right messages appear when we are ready for them.

      Thank you for visiting Mind Recipes and please feel free to comment or make suggestions of the type of material you would like to see in future.

      regards Brenda 🙂

  6. Dzintra says:

    Thank you! It is just exactly how I feel and what I think . It is like you put my thoughts on a paper .When I first time (and it was years ago) saw quote from Coco Chanel: “I don’t care what you think about me. I don’t think about you at all.” It was so rude and meanwhile very helpful how to not get hurt from other peoples. This what you wrote is polite way how to say the same. 🙂 I was also for years thinking all rhe time what others will think and I recognized that I am not living my life but other peoples life but you cant be good to all of them as they are not the same,what is good for one is not good for otheres and than I read another quote -God gives as relatives and thanks to God that we can choose our friends.:) And those 2 quotes put together makes rules how to live life without comparision.

    • Brenda says:

      Dzintra – so happy my article helped put your thoughts into words.

      Welcome to Mind Recipes. I will look forward to reading more comments from you in the future

  7. Charity says:

    Hello – more posts please. Like reading them here rather than on Facebook

  8. Julian says:

    Great article – loved it

  9. Moses says:

    I spend my days worrying about what people think of me – this makes sense. Now I just need ot put it into action

  10. Kelly says:

    How strange that I was just Googling this quote and found your exact same words under a note by a completely different author… who was the originator? You or her?

    • Brenda says:

      Thanks for visiting Kelly.
      All I can say is that the words written on my site were written by me.
      I believe that people come to my site to read my thoughts and to share theirs and I wouldn’t disrespect them by copying someone else’s work.

      <3 for letting me know. I am aware that this has happened before where an article I had written was copied word for word on a facebook page. There is little I can do other than know that my integrity is intact.

    • Brenda says:

      Kelly thank you for bringing this to my attention. I have contacted the person who has used my article as her own, but there is little I can do about it if she chooses to continue to claim it. My article was published and written originally over a year before hers appeared. I am flattered that she thought my article was good enough to use as her own

  11. Drew says:

    It isn’t my business and aren’t I glad about that 🙂

  12. Darci says:

    Thankѕ for the post. Helps heaps

  13. larry donovan says:

    Everyone is differant, some give opinions, others don’t, those who give opinions, can be loved or hated sometimes the words come out in the wrong order by accident. Those who keep their gob shut may also be judged as brilliant or terrible depending on how they look facial expressios. Always seek a second opinion and never judge a book by it’s looks on the outside.

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    Hello, my name is Morty. I just stumbled upon your site – well done

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    Thanks to you

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    As beings of light in human form we walk daily within a highway of energies, and learning to navigate the duality of energies is of equal importance and empowering to ones search for understanding and learning of ones divine nature.I wish you well in your explorations of self and vistas of your divine nature. All the best Nysani

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