Nov 14 2008
Are You Apathetic About Not Caring?
The Good | The Zen of Earplugs for Your Thoughts
There’s a very simple way to take the stress out of your life.
You ready? Stop caring.
Not completely, of course, just be more selective. My mind is cavernous in its capacity and despite all my best intentions that cavity is usually full of buzzing thoughts, of all different ranges of topics and degrees of importance to my life.
The reality is that not much of it matters. I can choose for it to matter, certainly, but I obviously then can make the choice to block it out. Will I lead a different life? Yes, slightly. The stress will dissolve, though.
The truth is, even if you’ve never been a petty person one day in your life, some day you’ll reach appoint where you simply can no longer afford to care about too many things. You’ll spread yourself thin and exhaust all your mental resources and all of your emotional supplies.
The good news is with your brand new, simplified, streamlined life, the remaining subjects and issues that receive your care and attention receive them more fully and more deeply.
For me that age was about halfway through college. I used the word “petty” before and while I never cared about, say, what someone said about how he or she thought of me, or other various issues that never stopped the world from spinning, I definitely assigned weight to what didn’t proportionally deserve the weight I provided.
Life is simple and life is complex. That will be the case no matter how much you decide to care about. If you aren’t unnecessarily taxing yourself in the head and the heart, however, you’ll live more efficiently and with more opportunity. Who doesn’t like that?
