QuoteProject
Don't take anything personally. Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others insult you directly, it has nothing to do with you. Their point of view and opinion come from all the programming they received growing up. When you take things personally, you feel offended and your reaction is to defend your beliefs and create conflict. You make something big out of something so little because you have the need to be right and make everybody else wrong.
Miguel Angel Ruiz
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes the importance of not taking insults or criticisms personally, as they often reflect the issuer's own experiences and beliefs.

Miguel Angel Ruiz's quote encourages individuals to detach their self-worth from others' opinions, highlighting that many criticisms stem from the personal histories and biases of those who offer them. By understanding that these opinions are a reflection of the speaker's own programming rather than a true judgment of oneself, one can avoid unnecessary conflict and maintain inner peace. Taking things personally often leads to defensiveness and escalating tensions, whereas recognizing the broader context can foster a more serene approach to interpersonal interactions.

Themes

PersonalOpinionsConflictSelf-WorthPerspective

In practice

Example use cases

During a team meeting where feedback might be personal, I would remind everyone, 'Don't take anything personally.'

More from Miguel Angel Ruiz

We have a tendency to make assumptions about everything! The problem with making assumptions is that we believe they are truth. We could swear they are real. We make assumptions about what others are doing or thinking-we take it personally-then we blame them and react by sending emotional poison in our word. That is why whenever we make assumptions, we're asking for problems. We make assumptions, we misunderstand, we take it personally, and we end up creating a whole big drama for nothing.
Miguel Angel RuizRead
...What you are is a force--a force that makes it possible for your body to live, a force that makes it possible for your whole mind to dream...You are life
Miguel Angel RuizRead
What you will see is love coming out of the trees, love coming out of the sky, love coming out of the light. You will perceive love from everything around you. This is the state of bliss.
Miguel Angel RuizRead
Humans punish themselves endlessly for not being what they believe they should be. They become very self-abusive, and they use other people to abuse themselves as well.
Miguel Angel RuizRead
When we try to describe the truth with words, we distort it and it's no longer truth--it's our story. The story may be true for us, but that doesn't mean it's true for anyone else.
Miguel Angel RuizRead
When we believe in lies, we cannot see the truth, so we make thousands of assumptions and we take them as truth. One of the biggest assumptions we make is that the lies we believe are the truth!
Miguel Angel RuizRead

Similar quotes

I am not the editor of a newspaper and shall always try to do right and be good so that God will not make me one.
Mark TwainRead
Imperious, choleric, irascible, extreme in everything, with a dissolute imagination the like of which has never been seen, atheistic to the point of fanaticism, there you have me in a nutshell, and kill me again or take me as I am, for I shall not change.
Marquis De SadeRead
This deep agnosticism is more than the refusal of conventional agnosticism to take a stand on whether God exists or whether the mind survives bodily death. It is the willingness to embrace the fundamental bewilderment of a finite, fallible creature as the basis for leading a life that no longer clings to the superficial consolations of certainty.
Stephen BatchelorRead
I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
Thomas JeffersonRead
People who can be very good can be very bad too.
Agatha ChristieRead
The earth has everything for all human needs, but nothing for his greed.
Mahatma GandhiRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.