Fuck the uncontrollable

Recently I’ve been reading a lot about the philosophy of stoicism.

In his book, “The Little Book of Stoicism: Timeless Wisdom to Gain Resilience, Confidence, and Calmness”, Jonas Salzgeber, writes:

In Stoicism, what you do with the given circumstances matters much more. Stoics recognized that the good life depends on the cultivation of one’s character, on one’s choices and actions rather than on what happens in the uncontrollable world around us.

In my experience via something like 15 years of teaching and coaching, people spend far more time worrying about shit they can’t control than actually trying to improve themselves.

What if someone laughs at me for… whatever.

Maybe they will.

Maybe they won’t.

But if you do something (like, say, make a mistake in English if you’re a second language speaker… or whatever language you’re speaking) and someone laughs at you or reacts negatively in any kind of way, frankly that’s their business, not yours.

Other people’s reactions are always about them.

Not you.

So worrying about what people think is just a total fucking waste of time.

Concentrate on what you can control.

You.

Your mind.

How YOU react to adversity, negatively or whatever.