Do You Really Care What People Think of You?

I've said many times that to build your business, you need to build relationships based on know/like/trust. And I believe this.

But I have also repeated a favorite teaching of my mentor, Michael Dlouhy, which is "It's none of your business what other people think of you. It's only your business what you think of yourself."

CARE IMPROVEMENT

These two statements may seem contradictory, but really they are not. If you continually focus on developing yourself into the person you want to be, you will naturally attract people who like that person and want to do business with them. At the same time, there will be jealous and envious people who wish they were more like you, and they will criticize you because of it!

Fear of criticism is one of the six "ghosts of fear " Napoleon Hill covers in "Think And Grow Rich." Like all fears, we need to outwit this one. This was a major fear of mine, and what is really helping me to outwit it is the realization that the more successful you become, the more other people feel the need to criticize you! Of course, these people are wasting their time in negative emotions when they should be focusing on becoming the person they wish they were (more like You!) They will not build know/like/trust relationships and gain cooperation from others by criticizing people.

So, you need to focus on yourself. What are some of the things I've worked on over the years?

Not correcting my husband's grammer Being more patient with people Being more flexible and spontaneous Not speaking for other people unless they ask Not digging deep enough before asking for help

Most of these issues stem from my Green personality. Earlier this week, Michael was talking about the Green's need to always be right. We Greens often think we are helping others when really we are just annoying or (worse yet) embarrassing them. It has been hard for me to learn to let other people do their own thing and only offer help when asked for it.

If you are not sure what areas you want to work on, ask someone you trust and care about what you do that bugs them. Chances are, if it bugs them it also bugs other people. Also, think about the people you most admire, the people who have what you want in life. What qualities or habits do they have that you don't?

I also wrote an article about the strengths and weaknesses of the four personality types which might bring you some insight.

Don't worry about the people who don't like you. They are not the people you want to work with anyway! Just keep up your personal development efforts and you will attract the people and circumstances you need to achieve success. Build your relationships with those people and ignore the others!

Do You Really Care What People Think of You?

CARE IMPROVEMENT