Don’t You Dare Wear Someone Else’s Opinion

Recently, someone shared with me someone else’s opinion of me. It was not a good opinion. I would be lying to you if I said that hearing that opinion did not disappoint me. It did and very much so. I just didn’t expect it and their opinion certainly was not true.

So I found myself thinking about the opinion most of the day—even got mad about it. I was asking myself questions like, “How did they come to that conclusion?” “When did they form that opinion?” “What did I do that may have influenced them to think that way of me?” Then I was reminded of a frequent saying of one of my former junior high school algebra teachers: Opinions are like butt holes, everybody has one.

Opinions are just opinions; not facts. They are someone else’s thinking about or judgement of you and/or a situation. Here are a few definitions of the word opinion:

• a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge (Oxford Dictionaries)

• a belief based on experience and on seeing certain facts but not amounting to sure knowledge (Wester’s Dictionary)

• a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty (Dictionary.com)

So my encouragement to you today—Don’t you dare wear someone else’s opinion of you. What I mean by this is DO NOT take ownership of what other people say or think about you, especially if it is negative and/or untrue. It’s their opinion. It does not have to become your opinion of yourself.

Remember…Sister U Matter!®