Play By Your Own Rules

This afternoon, I had one of my WhatsApp groups forward a quote falsely attributed to Churchill(I did a fact check) about ignoring what people think of you. The quote reads: “When you’re 20, you care what everyone thinks, when you’re 40 you stop caring what everyone thinks, when you’re 60 you realize no one was ever thinking about you in the first place.”

It is impossible to argue with the wisdom of these words, even if Churchill did not say them. Most people spend two-thirds of their lives wondering what others think about what they are doing, only to realize that no one outside their immediate family is really thinking about them.

We can all learn from the wisdom of our sixty-year-old future self. Play by your own rules. Quit worrying about what others are thinking about whatever you are doing and live your life free from the need to please others.