Very meaningful read for beginning of 2024.
Source: 5 Life-Changing Levels of Not Giving a Fuck (markmanson.net)
LEVEL 4: FAILURE
Something incredible happens when you stop giving a fuck what other people think about you—which is what Levels 1-3 were all about—it gives you the freedom to fail.
LEVEL 3: CRITICISM
Fact: you can’t keep everyone happy all of the time.
LEVEL 2: REJECTION
If the willingness to look like an idiot is the first step towards not giving a fuck, the next step is being willing to face rejection.
LEVEL 1: EMBARRASSMENT
In psychology, there’s something known as the Spotlight Effect. The Spotlight Effect says that we all tend to assume that people are paying far more attention to us than they actually are.
Think back to the last time you got a terrible haircut. Chances are you walked around all day assuming that everybody was staring at that tragedy of a mop on your head. But the reality was most people didn’t notice. And if they noticed, they sure didn’t care.
One of my favorite quotes ever comes from the author David Foster Wallace. He said:
You will stop worrying so much what other people think about you when you realize how seldom they do.