🌳 Who Cares What They Think

💭 Quote of the Week

Ever spent 20 minutes rewriting one email line, overthinking about the 10 different ways it might be interpreted and what the reader will think (hell, I’m doing it as I write this)? We all do it. And for 2,000 years, we humans haven't changed a bit.

💡 Stoic Lesson of The Week

Last Tuesday, I gave what felt like a solid presentation. The numbers were clear, the insights were sharp, and the delivery felt smooth. Multiple "Great job!" messages rolled in. Then came the Slack message that erased them all: "Interesting approach..." Complete with the passive-aggressive ellipsis.

Just like that, an hour of confidence turned to dust.

Here's what Marcus Aurelius noticed about us humans: We spend years honing our expertise and judgment, then let it crumble because someone who spent 30 seconds thinking about our work has a different opinion.

The really wild part? That colleague who just casually carpet-bombed your confidence? They probably spent the rest of their day obsessing over whether their own comment made them sound smart enough. Meanwhile, you're redesigning your entire presentation based on their half-formed thought.

How's that for a cosmic joke? It's like we're all stuck in this endless loop of obsessing over what everyone else thinks, while everyone else is too busy obsessing over what we think of them.

🎯 Your Action Plan

The "Past Me Was Right" Journal

• Get a small notebook or create a note on your phone

• Every time you resist outside opinions and your judgment proves right, write it down

• Include what others said, what you decided, and how it turned out

• Review this list before any decision where you're tempted to poll 10 people first

Try This Now: Think of your last good decision. Write down:

1. What your gut said

2. What others advised

3. Why you were right

(The beauty of this exercise? You'll start noticing how often your initial judgment is spot-on. It's like filling up a cookie jar of proof that you actually know what you're doing.)

📖 Story Time

Picture this: You're the emperor of Rome. Your face is on the coins. Literally every decision you make becomes law. And every morning, a line of people wait to tell you how brilliant you are.

This was Marcus Aurelius's reality. But instead of basking in all that validation, he'd end each day writing in his journal about the trap of trusting others' opinions over his own judgment. Even after a day of people agreeing with his every word (because, you know, emperor), he wrote: "I see this trap in my own mind - caring more about others' opinions than my own."

Think about that. The most powerful man in the world struggled with the same thing you feel before hitting 'post' on Instagram.

🤔 Takeaway

Everyone's just guessing. Some just do it more confidently than others. Your inner compass might not be perfect, but at least it's actually yours.

✍️ Journal Prompt

Think of the last decision where you ignored your gut to please others. Write down:

• What did your instinct tell you?

• What did you do instead?

• What would trusting yourself have looked like?

• What's the cost of not trusting yourself?

🔗 Worth Your Time

Recommended reads to dive deeper and some of my favorite content I found on the internet this week...

• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (My favorite modern personal development book by Mark Manson)

• "How to Stop Caring What Other People Think of You" (The Atlantic)

• “How to Take Back Your Own Mind (ft. Tim Urban)”