DTH-X-0021
“I want to live with less fear of what other people think.”
The awareness of death is one of the most effective cures for excessive concern about others' opinions. Most of what we fear in social judgment disappears when you hold it against the fact that both you and your critics are mortal. The question is whether what you are doing is right — not whether it is approved.
Your Practice
Name one thing you have been holding back — a project, a position, a choice — because of fear of how others will react. Ask: in ten years, will I care what those people thought? If the answer is no, take one visible step toward it this week. Not a grand gesture — just one honest step in the right direction.
The Architects
“Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book III