Feeling stressed? Feeling overwhelmed? Feeling like life just isn't quite what you want it to be? Often, that's because you are spending way too much time on things that don't matter. Let's loosen you up a bit and lighten your load so you can walk and dance and run easier, into a future that looks like the life you've always dreamed of having. It's not all that hard, and the first step is to stop caring about the things you need to stop caring about. Here are 19 things you should stop caring about right now.
1. Having the newest, most up-to-date, most expensive ____.
Life isn’t about things. If you make your life about things, you will build a fancy, thing-filled castle of a life, and at the end of all of it, you’ll still feel empty. Don’t build a fancy, thing-filled castle. Go live your life.
2. People who don’t care about you.
There, I said it. If you’re exerting a crazy amount of energy to please someone who isn’t putting anything into making your life better, stop caring and get out of there. (You’re welcome!).
3. The lives your exes are living.
It’s the life you didn’t fit into or decided to shed, so don’t you dare stalk them online for a second.
4. How many places you’ve been.
Even traveling can become materialistic and shallow when you start checking places off the map instead of experiencing them. When you visit a place, really go there. Experience the people who live there and the lives they live. Don’t just go in, take 100 pictures, go out. That’s not real travel, and you’ll find it’s a waste of what could be a beautiful experience if you care piling on the places rather than truly seeing them.
5. Your Snapchat.
AKA, total waste of time / weird social phenomenon that’s lasted far too long.
6. How many likes you get on ____.
Focus on living a life you love, not one that gets the attention of near-strangers on Fakebook.
7. How many friends/followers you have on ____.
If these are your concerns, you’re doing it wrong. What matters is the quality of the friendships and relationships you build on an everyday basis, not the imaginary number of folks you rack up online (you know that girl you met at a party in college is not your “friend”).
8. What a terrible dancer or ____ you are.
Just go dance. Just go do the thing. Picasso once finger-painted. Bjork’s voice is weird as hell, but she’s world famous. So you can definitely get out there and do your thing, too, even if you're rough around the edges at the beginning.
9. Building your resume.
If you say something is a good idea because it will “look good on your resume,” ask yourself what in the hell you’re doing with your life. You shouldn’t care about building a resume. You should care about building a life. If you focus on building a life you’ll be proud of, the life you want to live, it will lead to the super-awesome job you think you need a resume for.
10. Pleasing the impossible boss man.
We’ve all had one in our lifetimes, and we’ll all probably have plenty more. Impossible boss mans are impossible to please, so just do your job or find a new one and get out of there. Whatever you do, don’t waste your time caring about what they want, because you’ll never be good enough – no one is.
11. The opinions of in-laws and friends of significant others.
It’s sort of their job to make your life hard, because they’re protective of your new person. Don’t waste your time caring about what they think. Just love. And if you’re meant to have a great relationship with them, it will happen naturally. It will not happen if you play the game / suck up.
12. The number on the scale.
Not because your health or weight don’t matter – they do if you want to live a long and relatively comfortable life. But your weight is simply not a good indication of how healthy you really are (ever heard of “skinny fat”?). What you should care about is a healthy diet and regular exercise, not the number.
13. What anyone else is doing that doesn’t directly affect (or harm) you.
It’s far too easy to get wrapped up in other people’s drama. And for what? You can’t control what other people do with their lives, so don’t waste time stressing over what’s out of your control anyway.
14. Other people’s expectations for you.
So, it goes both ways. You can’t stress over the expectations you have for other people, and you certainly shouldn’t stress out over what other people expect from you. What matters is what you want, because you’re the one who has to look in the mirror on the last day of your life.
15. Disappointing people.
It is going to happen sometimes, and that’s okay. It’s better to be true to yourself and your needs than to pretend to be something while becoming increasingly miserable, knowing you’re not where you need to be doing what you need to do.
16. When you’ll ever pay off the debt.
Plenty of us are drowning in debt. Plenty of us will be drowning in debt for a hell of a long time. Pay it off, yes, but stop caring about it. It’s just going to get your blood pressure high and your lifespan short.
17. What you wear.
Sometimes, it is really nice to buy a new outfit and feel fresh. But remember that those threads will get recycled when you’re gone, and they’re not worth anything close to the experiences you could buy had you not opted for the ultra-expensive clothes.
18. Anything that “society” requires of you.
If you’re doing something because you feel like you’re supposed to, because of “society,” ask yourself exactly who these big society folks are and why you care so much about their opinion. No one is watching your life that closely, and even if they are, it’s only because they’re bored with their own lives. As soon as you figure that out, you can be whatever you want to be.
19. The world falling apart before you.
It may very well feel that way. And some day, you might just step up and protest like crazy on the street corner (hey, go for it). But this comes down to what you can control and what you can’t control. You can’t stop the world from falling apart. Focus on what you can do in your small world, and help others do the same.
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