I think it has to do with maturity. Back in grade school or high school, if I found out someone didn't like me or was mad at me, I'd not only make myself sick worrying about it, but I'd bend over backward being nice to him or her until I won them over.
While I unfortunately still care what people think (I'm working on improving this), I've found that I'm more selective regarding who I care about in this regard.
For example, I recently wrote on Facebook about a funny exchange I had with one of my colleagues. One of my Facebook friends commented on this exchange by saying "You're not that witty in person." I responded with, "You obviously don't know me that well."
First of all, the exchange I wrote about was virtually verbatim. So yes, I am that witty in person. Second of all, I let this comment affect me far longer than I should have, given it came from a Facebook friend who I worked with a few years ago and who I had to defend several times for his tool-like behavior.
So instead of dwelling on it, and figuring out how to win this friend over, I just decided to cut this negativity out of my life. Just like that. Never have I ever so easily and readily cut out negativity so I didn't spend time or energy on it. I unfriended this person from my "personal" Facebook account (my "real" account that I use with all of my friends) and left him on my "professional" Facebook account (the one for the public if a potential employer were to look me up). Problem solved.
I am aware that I'm a negative person, and I'm working on this. And it starts with cutting the extra negativity in my life.
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