20 Ways To Offend People
The world keeps trying to tell you how to live.
Not from the last 200 years but this has been the case from the medieval ages. To prove my point, let me start with a very famous Aesop Fable:
A Man and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: “You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?”
So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: “See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides.”
So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn’t gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: “Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along.”
Well, the Man didn’t know what to do, but at last he took his Boy up before him on the Donkey. By this time they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point at them. The Man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at. The men said: “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor donkey of yours and your hulking son?”
The Man and Boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, till at last they cut down a pole, tied the donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them till they came to Market Bridge, when the Donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the Boy to drop his end of the pole. In the struggle the Donkey fell over the bridge, and his fore-feet being tied together he was drowned.
“That will teach you,” said an old man who had followed them:
“Please all, and you will please none.”
The fables might be old but the wisdom is ageless.
Everybody — your parents, brother, sister, neighbor, neighbor’s dog — seems to have an opinion on what you should or should not do.
And no matter what you do, people are always unhappy.
Remember that you are living first for yourself and maybe probably only for yourself, unless you are trying to become the next Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Teresa — In that case your life might not be just yours.
So, here are quick daily reminders to keep you sane. You might have to do 417 things daily but here are 20 daily reminders about things you don’t have to do, despite what the people out there tell you
- You don’t need to keep in touch.
- You don’t need to smile all the time.
- You don’t need to be nice to everyone.
- You don’t need to answer anybody’s call.
- You don’t need to be thankful.
- You don’t need to greet everyone.
- You don’t need to make plans if you don’t want to.
- You don’t need to return the favor.
- You don’t need to apologize.
- You don’t need to have a conversation with someone.
- You don’t need to adjust.
- You don’t need to network.
- You don’t need to post on social media all the time.
- You don’t need to be tactful/diplomatic.
- You don’t need to be on a diet.
- You don’t need to be afraid of satisfaction.
- You don’t need to abandon your comfort zone because someone told you to.
- You don’t need to reply to anybody right away.
- You don’t have to hold yourself accountable.
- You don’t need to get along.
