Useful realization of the day!

Simple living, extreme early retirement, becoming and being wealthy, wisdom, praxis, personal growth,...
Post Reply
TopHatFox
Posts: 2322
Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2013 10:07 pm
Location: FL; 25

Useful realization of the day!

Post by TopHatFox »

It's taken me a while to get here it seems, but today I realized the liberating truth that most people are too preoccupied with their own lives to really, genuinely care about what you're doing with yours, or what's happening in yours. I can now more clearly see why active listeners are so valued. :idea:

chenda
Posts: 3289
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:17 pm
Location: Nether Wallop

Re: Useful realization of the day!

Post by chenda »

What's prompted you to arrive at this belief ?

TopHatFox
Posts: 2322
Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2013 10:07 pm
Location: FL; 25

Re: Useful realization of the day!

Post by TopHatFox »

Not much, just sharing what's been going on in my life as part of every day mutual conversation with people, and getting brief interest in return. I've tried my best to really listen to people when they speak, but perhaps that's rarer than I think. Also, inviting people to hangout only to be greeted with a version of "I'm too busy with X exam or Y essay or Z meeting." I hope to find a culture that doesn't prioritize work above everything else some day.

Part of my reasoning comes from a short book written by Epictetus. At some point he reasoned that if you break a ceramic cup, think of it like your neighbor broke a ceramic cup. Not as big of a deal if it happens to someone else, right? Well, similar deal with other parts of our lives. If your relationship breaks, although it might seem important to you, it might just be a commonplace happening to the average person you might speak to. This is likely also similar, then, with happenings like getting a job, quitting a job, travelling, etc. My point is to reduce my care for other people's opinions, because the truth is they probably don't care that much about what you do anyway.

BRUTE
Posts: 3797
Joined: Sat Dec 26, 2015 5:20 pm

Re: Useful realization of the day!

Post by BRUTE »

a good insight

User avatar
C40
Posts: 2748
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:30 am

Re: Useful realization of the day!

Post by C40 »

yeah, totally..

Along those lines, someone recently reminded me: "If you want to make friends, focus on being interested, not on being interesting"

Stahlmann
Posts: 1121
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:05 pm

Re: Useful realization of the day!

Post by Stahlmann »

Olaz wrote:I hope to find a culture that doesn't prioritize work above everything else some day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE7PKRjrid4

FBeyer
Posts: 1069
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2015 3:25 am

Re: Useful realization of the day!

Post by FBeyer »

Olaz wrote:It's taken me a while to get here it seems, but today I realized the liberating truth that most people are too preoccupied with their own lives to really, genuinely care about what you're doing with yours, or what's happening in yours. I can now more clearly see why active listeners are so valued. :idea:
The Spotlight Effect. People don't even care that you fall on your ass in public or wear funny clothes.

Post Reply