This is the only
advice I can give to others. I thought about this after reading
someone please kill me, and realizing how much people's
self-worth was based on what they thought others thought about them.
Fuck that. You are whatever you make yourself. If people don't like that they can go and get
fucked. I will agree, for those who base their self-worth on other people's evaluations, this can be a
difficult concept. It took me a few years to get it right, and I still get
self-conscious sometimes. But you must remind yourself that other people's opinions
do not matter. If they like you, that's
cool. If they don't, that's cool too. But don't base your self-worth on what they think. Here's a few rules:
- Someone will always be better at what you do than you are. I will probably never be as good a programmer as John Carmack. But that's okay. I'm a good programmer, he's a better programmer. C'est la vie.
- Someone will always find a problem with you. They don't realize it or they're evil fucks, but they will always find a way to try to make you feel bad for something about you. Fuck them.
hmm. kessinich is right. i did use fuck a few times in that little rant. oh well; sorry if i offended someone (not really).
update, re. tem42: I'm not telling
everyone to walk up to their
neighbors and tell them to go to
hell. I'm saying that if you are basing your
self-worth on what others say about you or how they act towards you something's wrong. This isn't to say everyone needs to be
self-absorbed, or think that there's no room for
self-improvement. But in my
experience very few people are limited by self-absorbtion; most are limited by worrying how others will
percieve their actions.