Why You Should Never Take Anything Personally

I am touching back on the book written by Don Miguel Ruiz, "The Four Agreements", because I wanted to ensure that I spent some time reflecting on one other of his key principles.  Never Take Anything Personally, is also one of the four agreements and I find this one to be particularly freeing.  If you can get that what people say about you is more about them, versus about you, you will be miles ahead of the game of life. We can all recall to any period in our life when someone said something to us that was not very positive and as a result we may have had a negative reaction to it.  As a child if you were scolded for doing something that you were not supposed to, then you knew by either the tone or the words that were used to address you, that your actions or behavior may have been inappropriate.  I used to be very observant of parental behavior towards their children in public places.  During my moments of observation I found that in many instances parents were doing a lot more damage by the use and the choice of their words towards their children.  A child's biggest influence is usually their parents and when a parent begins to reinforce negative thoughts onto a child, the consequences can last a lifetime.  Therefore when we know better as adults we can do better and we can be more cognizant of the fact that we should never take anything personally.  The realization of knowing that what other people say about you, has nothing to do with who you really are, can lift so much pressure from anyone. What I have found is that people will put upon you things that they have issues with themselves.  What other people think about you, should be none of your business period.  Do your best to let those opinions that are less than flattering about you stay with those individuals that perpetuated this to begin with.  Understand that feelings of inferiority or other fears lie within another individual and not yourself.  Do your best to keep your head held high and stay true to what you know deeply about your own self.  Let other people's rhetoric stay with them and do not give importance to things that should not matter to you.  When you realize at the end of the day that what truly matters is what you think and say about your own self, that is when you can turn the corner on this issue.  Remember to always keep moving forward and never look back at what misstep you may have made in the past.  After all, all of those steps are what got you to where you are now in the first place.