Dreadlocks and peasant dresses? maybe not...

Well I was sitting in church today, and something the pastor said really stuck out to me. He said, “why do we care so much about what other people think?” Which is kind of a basic concept that everyone has probably heard about 1,000 times during their lifetime, but today it came alive to me in a new way. Because all these thoughts that pop into my mind when I enter in to a situation seem to be spurred from worrying about what the people I’m interacting with will think of me. Why do I care so much? Why am I not just one of those free spirits, with dirty hair and mismatched hemp clothing, who doesn’t care a lick about what I’m wearing or how I’m acting or what I’m saying, because I’m just free to be me. I’m so confident in who I am and what I’m about that the opinions of others are meaningless. And shouldn’t they be? Yes, to a point it is absolutely important to care what others think (a.k.a. supervisors, bosses, professors, I’ve touched on this before), but what good does it do me to worry about the other people? I only end up getting my feelings hurt, feeling like I don’t size up to others, or worse, thinking I’m better than others. Ew. What if I could begin to take steps in the direction of not caring so much what others believe about me. But just acting in a way that shows I’m only concerned about impressing my audience of One. Hmm… It might be a new goal I’m going to try out.