Daily Prompt: How often do you find yourself concerned about what others think?

Of course, we all know the correct answer, right?

“Never. What other people think of me is none of my business.”

Of course, I think for most people this answer is just bullshit. It’s the goal, to be sure. I don’t know if I have ever met anyone who has achieved it, though.

How often do I find myself concerned about what other people think?

All the time.

During meditation my mind often wanders to thoughts of me explaining what I am doing to someone else, justifying my methods, explaining my why. I do this with other things as well. From writing code to designing a database at work to making even the most mundane of life decisions, I tend to picture myself explaining whatever it is to a nameless face.

Why? Because I care what other people think of me, of what I am doing, and if I am doing it correctly. I really spend a lot of energy trying to know the unknowable: what is in someone else’s mind.

In reality, every single person in our life is an NPC. A Non-Playable Character for those of you who don’t know the joy of gaming. And we should care about the thoughts of those real-life NPCs as much as we do about those NPCs we interact with in games.

That is a big ask for most of us. After all, evolution has molded us into social creatures whose survival has relied on fitting in with others. We naturally care about what other people think of us.

I’d like to say I don’t often find myself concerned about what others think of me, but I have to tell you that isn’t true … because I care about what you think about me. Don’t want to seem untruthful here, Skippy.