Have you ever felt the crushing weight of high standards? Has it ever seemed as though you’re letting everyone around you down? Of course you have. If you say you haven’t, then you are probably lying to yourself. But why do we constantly feel the need to make everyone around us happy before we bother to check in with our own happiness? We need to find a balance between taking care of ourselves and caring for others.
If you live your life trying to constantly please everyone around you, you end up losing yourself in the process. But this is nothing new; we’ve all heard it a million times. So although I think it’s important to live your life for you, people sometimes take this a little too far. Some people take this little piece of advice as “don’t give a crap about people” rather than “don’t give a crap about what people think.” They may seem to be the same thing, but they’re not. Disregarding others’ image of what you should be like is one thing, but disregarding people is another matter entirely.
I am the first to admit that I try to put up a façade of indifference. But the truth is, not caring about people is not cool. Caring about people is one of the things that makes human beings such amazing creatures. We wrap our arms around each other to express affection and we laugh at each other’s jokes, even if they’re not funny. Humans care about other humans, no matter how selfish we may be at times.
We need to quit responding to things with “I don’t care.” If we continue on this path, then pretty soon we will lose the people in our lives that we genuinely care about. Building walls is some people’s natural response (me included) to others getting too close. But what if we just take a chance and actually care about others? I think it might surprise you that investing time in other people is just as important as investing time in yourself.
I fully advocate for living your life without the crushing weight of other people’s expectations, but don’t ever let that prevent you from caring. Be selfish when you need a little extra TLC, but don’t downplay the needs of others in the process. When you are happy with yourself, you don’t need anyone to tell you you’re not good enough. Just pass along your sunshine to the next person.
