Ways to Stop Feeling Silly

Many people tell me they want to stop feeling silly. They don't want to feel foolish anymore, and sometimes feel like they are acting silly in situations where they should know better.


Here are 7 tips that help you stop feeling silly and enjoy life more:

STOP TAKING EVERYTHING PERSONALLY

In the words of author Robert Fulghum, "Don't take things personally. If you try to understand why people do the things they do, you'll discover that you have absolutely no control over them."

Being personal isn't a negative thing. In fact, most relationships start off as personal. It's only as time goes by that we start to separate ourselves from people we care about, and we stop taking the things they say and do so personally. But taking everything personally, especially negative things, can actually make us feel bad and make us act silly.

I often ask people how they are doing on a given day, and most people don't want to answer. Instead they try to put themselves in the shoes of the other person, and end up feeling bad.

It's much easier and more comfortable to be our own version of ourselves. If someone is having a bad day, I just tell myself "I'm going to do my best to help him or her today, because I know he or she would do the same for me.

There are also some people who want to see themselves in others. They want to see themselves in other people as an attempt to fill a void they are feeling within themselves. That's a bit silly, and you don't want to let that happen. You want to live in the present.

STOP LETTING YOURSELF BE DISRESPECTED

When you're young, you probably don't care much about what people think about you. As you grow older, however, you learn that what others think about you matters a great deal.

One of the biggest reasons you start to feel silly is because you can't let yourself be disrespected. You keep looking for reasons to be disappointed, and you take things personally.

But life doesn't work like that. People are only interested in how they are affecting you. You have to learn to separate yourself from people and events that don't matter.

This is a big change for most people, because we grew up believing that how we look mattered. You've probably heard the expression "people see me, but they don't see me". It doesn't really work that way.

If you're a young man, you'll probably find it easier to stop being disrespected than a woman will. Women spend a great deal of time worrying about how they are perceived by others. Men tend to get angry and lash out when they think they are being disrespected.

I remember when I was in college. I had a girlfriend who wasn't really into dating, so I went out and started meeting women. I was pretty cocky back then and used to treat women poorly in order to impress them. It