Getting along with people

I'd like to think that everyone likes or respects me, but I know it's not true. What I'm not going to tell you is "I don't care what others think of me." That's a garbage thing to say. You do care, even if it's subconscious and like I've mentioned before if you didn't, you would say it. It's a line used by passive aggressive people with the social skills of a peevish librarian (Fallout Vegas points for you if you get that one).

Usually when you have a clash with one person, it could be just personalities. You aren't going to like everyone you encounter, that's for sure. However when you get a persecution complex and think everyone is against you and you are always arguing with everyone-that's on you, not them. You learn pretty quickly in life that you need to get along with people to be successful. That doesn't mean liking everyone, it means getting along with them. You can be successful if you are prickly, argumentative, unpleasant and surly but it requires a great effort and it's very rare. 

It's hard for me to accept these things. In my teenage years and early 20's I was one of those people who said he "didn't care" what others think. I was brash, arrogant obnoxious and had a massive chip on my shoulder. I would argue over everything and go to war for the slightest thing. Sure, I'm still arrogant and I carry grudges forever but I'm mortified that I once said "I don't care what others think." Others correctly wrote me off-as they should have. If I didn't care about what they think, why should they care about what I think? 

However I was only in my 20's. I want you to write down things you thought in your teens and twenties that you still agree with today. If you haven't changed at all than congratulations-you've wasted years of your life. It's pretty sad when someone at 36 views the world and acts the same way as they did in at 21.