P–Don’t Take It Personal
“There are no facts, only interpretations” ~Friedrich Nietzsche
Just like children, we often operate in an egocentric world. Think for a second about when someone cuts you off in traffic; what is your first thought? I’d venture to guess it is something like “HEY! I was driving here! Didn’t you see me? I’m in a hurry and who do you think you are pushing me out of the way to get ahead?”
Do you see the assumption here? The assumption that the person cut YOU off specifically. Seems silly when you really think about it, doesn’t it? The reality of it was you just happened to be there; the cutting off was all about the other driver and had absolutely nothing to do with you. That driver was in a hurry, late for an important appointment, preoccupied with stressors, reacting to an emergency, was simply rude…..or a multitude of other possibilities.
The rest of our life is just like this traffic example; we often assume that the actions and decisions of other people have everything to do with us when, in fact, the opposite is true. The real truth, as Don Miguel Ruiz explains beautifully in The Four Agreements, is that nothing others do is because of you. Everything others do or say is a projection of their own unique reality.
One of the most important things we can remember on our own personal journey to success is that we must become immune to the opinions and actions of others. When we allow ourselves to embody the actions and opinions of others, we give our power away. We allow someone else to determine our mood, our actions and our success.
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