People love to talk, tell stories and often people love to talk about other people. A great woman by the name of Eleanor Roosevelt once said "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." I think this sums it up quite well.
If you put yourself out there in business, as a sports player or if you just have an instagram account, people are going to have an opinion on you. Negative words and conversations seem to hold longer and can travel much further into the heads and minds over their positive counterparts. Is it because there is more weight in a negative yarn than a positive one?
This year I have decided that every good thing I hear about anyone, I will then tell them and I mean anyone. Yesterday I sent an email as an elderly gentleman I know wanted to pass on his positive words about a journalist who recently interviewed him. I emailed her and her editor and they were both shocked by my sending the email and by the praise within it. So why do we find it so difficult to tell people they are great and find it so easy to make up preconceived ideas and stories on other people. There is definitely a book in that one anyway #copyright.
Almost everyone's life is out there now with our access and indeed at times over sharing on social media. People can feel they have an insight into peoples' lives and also that they know a person from the pictures and that snippet of a story they are telling.
People might think they have the ideal life, look great or are simply a total eejit but either way; often the story or the opinion on whatever they are viewing will be commented on behind closed doors or if it's a keyboard warrior then they will post on line. The rise of on line trolls has been well documented with every celeb leaving and rejoining Twitter and Instagram on an almost weekly basis.
I don't think we can change how human nature can often talk about others; I think it's just part of our makeup. We love to talk and almost self deflect from ourselves. However I do think that adopting a better attitude in yourself can help to not care and I mean not care what maybe one or 10 people think (Depending on your famous level!)
Here is a way of really offsetting negative or bad comments that people might say about you, What other peoples opinion of you is, is actually NONE of your business. If you know who you are, know what you are doing and why you are doing it, then own it and rock on. Of course it's hard to see those harsh words about yourself but I guarantee you for every harsh word, there are 50 more good and positive ones.
We need to take on board the good things more in life, the simple things.
Take my hat for insistence, I have it 6 years, I wore it to a GAA match in Galway around that time, before faux fur was acceptable to the masses and this group of girls that I know actually sniggered at me and threw up those eyes that only girls can do. Fair play I thought what a bunch of heroes. Fast forward to today, I am just in from the Novena wearing my hat and two things happened. One woman came up to me afterwards to say she loved it but could never have the courage to wear it and another man told me I looked like a gobshite. I enjoyed both interactions and thought to myself as I walked back to my office, it's great because I just threw on this hat and I love it so no matter what the girls, Bernie or Billy think is totally nothing to do with me.