Opinions: Should they really matter?

It's scary. It's scary how many people have their lives dictated by someone else's opinions and expectations these days. It's scary how people value others' opinion of them more than their own opinion. It's scary how this is the primary reason why 90% of people fail. Forget fail, they don't even get started because of the same reason.

Social media was supposed to be a platform which would connect us with people. The idea behind it was communication and only communication. But look at how we've changed the whole purpose of it. The only real reason why people come to social networking sites now is to seek validation. They want to be accepted. Acknowledged. Appreciated by strangers who have absolutely nothing to do with their lives. And in the process, many of them end up distancing themselves from people at a place which was primarily supposed to connect people and bring them together.

Why? Because people value someone else's opinion of them more than their own opinion. The way others look at you matters more to you than the way you want yourself to look.
Which is sad. Because unless you don't value yourself, your thoughts, your opinions and give absolutely no fucks about what others think of you, you're never going to progress and grow as a person. Because, you're not living your own life. You're living someone's else's. Driven by them. How they want you to live. What they want you to be. What they expect you to be.

And let me put it straight. We don't live in a fairytale or a textbook world where everybody is nice and sweet. We live in a world where everybody is competing. The competition is so immense that the person standing next to you, could be your brother and still wouldn't want you to succeed. Because you succeeding could somehow harm his success. That's the kind of world we're living in right now. So if you're going to live based on what someone else wants you to be, here's what they want. They want you to fail.

This rant is not about hating people. I'm not undermining people. I'm not writing this because "someone has hurt me" and I'm feeling vulnerable, so this is not an attempt to make myself feel better. No, this is bigger than that. I'm not trying to spread hatred. I'm just trying to be pragmatic here. I'm trying to tell you what reality feels like. And I'm trying to tell you how 'Not giving a fuck' feels like.

It feels great. It feels great to know that what anyone says about me does not matter to me. It feels great to live a life that is not dictated by someone else's expectations. It feels great to know that whatever I am doing, is strictly for myself. When you don't value others' opinion about you, you live your life. When you value someone else's opinion of you, you get your life lived.

Huge difference between the two. And I leave that for you to decide. Do you want to live your life or do you want to get your life lived?!

(All images are from pixabay.com)