I recently came across a quote that was supposedly attributed to Winston Churchill but after some looking, it seems that he never said it and that the original origin is unknown.
The quote:
When you’re 20 you care what everyone thinks, when you’re 40 you stop caring what everyone thinks, when you’re 60 you realize no one was ever thinking about you in the first place.
I’ve been thinking about this for a good hour. It comes across perhaps as a little shocking and rude, but I love how direct and pointed it is. People are so focused on themselves that they don’t think or care about what other people do. You’re thinking about what other people think of you, they’re thinking about what other people think of them, therefore, no one’s thinking about anyone else.
This is a blanket statement and isn’t completely true, but I think it’s an important thing to get through our heads. If we stopped thinking so much on what we perceived other people thought and did what we thought would be best, I think we’d find a lot more success in our endeavors.
We focus so much on others thoughts that we often never fully develop our own thoughts.
There is something to be said for considering your neighbor in the things you do. Looking to the needs of others. But there is a huge difference between doing things simply to please others and doing things because you care about others.
If you can find that difference and plug yourself into the latter, you will I think find a much greater level of contentment.