17th July 2024
Have you ever had a stain on your shirt & have been too scared to go in a public place afraid what will people think.
The truth is most people will not even notice the stain and you have been all along afraid of what people will think of you.
Just think, what would you do if you had zero fear of judgment?
There are two big mistakes in life:
- A) Worrying about what other people think about you.
- B) Believing that other people think about you in the first place.
We all suffer from a cognitive bias – The ‘Spotlight Effect’ which says that we overestimate the degree to which other people are noticing or observing our actions or behaviors.
Basically, we think everyone is focused on us, when in reality, everyone is just focused on themselves.
“Spotlight effect” refers to the tendency to think that more people notice something about you than they do.
Dozens of studies in social psychology have supported this phenomenon.
In one test, some students wore bright yellow Barry Manilow t-shirts to a large introductory psychology class. They then had the costume-wearers estimate how many people in the class they thought had noticed. They greatly overestimated it at 55% whereas the actual number who noticed were much lower at around 25%.
The lesson is simple – Stop worrying about what other people are thinking about you, because they probably aren’t thinking about you at all.
So, just think, what would you do if you had zero fear of judgment?
What risk would you take?
What new pursuit would you go after?
What side hustle would you work on?
What hobby would you start?
The truth is we aren’t afraid of failure, we’re afraid of what other people will think if we fail.
There’s so much hidden talent out there in the world that has yet to be revealed because of fear of judgement from others. Overcoming the Spotlight Effect is the way that this talent can get unlocked.
So, here’s your harsh reminder: No one is thinking about you, Take that leap of faith, do what you want to do, follow your passion, go for your dream & stay blessed forever.