Let's define perception.

Perception is your view on the world. Only YOU have that view. Another person's view on the world is their perception. Only THEY have that view.

Let's say you are in a park, playing football (soccer for the yanks) with the boys, and as you were attempting to do some mad SICK footy skills, the ones only Lionel Messi can pull off, you went a bit overboard for your abilities and tripped over the ball. Unknown to you, a ten year old boy on the bench to the side of you watched you fall.

"HAHA! YOU'RE AN IDIOT!" the boy chuckled.

You wouldn't give a fuck about what he said? Right? I don't know about you, but I'd actually find it quite funny if that happened to me.

Enough about me. You wouldn't give a fuck because you understand that he is young, inexperienced with the concepts of the world, and is still learning how to interact with people.

Let's apply this concept to everybody in this world.

Guess what?

EVERYBODY IS LEARNING.

EVERYBODY HAS THEIR OWN UNIQUE PERCEPTION OF THE WORLD.

Everybody's perception is based upon the experiences they've had in their life. Therefore, no two perceptions are the same.

A boy raised by an abusive single mother his entire life, is likely to become abusive to women himself. Provided he doesn't listen to other ways of dealing with his emotions, he will be like this for the rest of his life. He will likely seek out romantic relationships with women of a similar background to his own. Him and his partners will see each other as normal. Serial killers Fred and Rosemary West are an extreme example of this.

Let's take a real life example, George Morrison, a former high ranking official of the US Navy. His perception on life was completely different to his son's perception, Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors. One is a war veteran, one is an artist. George, when the first Doors album came out, told his son (I'm paraphrasing) that he should stop music and find a 'real job'. He didn't understand his son, he didn't understand his artistry. He only said that to Jim because that's what he thought, as a father, what was best for him, a.k.a. his own perception.

What if Jim listened to his father? Well, we wouldn't get to experience one of the most influential figures of music. Jim wouldn't realise his artistic abilities.

Pause for a moment. Pay attention. My opinions and understandings of Jim and George are MY perception. Yours will be different. You may not have even heard of either men.

Let's apply this concept to you. You have people who love you, you have people who hate you, you have people who think you're really intelligent, you have people who think you are fucking stupid. You have people who think your this, who think your that.

Keeping up with everyone's perception of you is fucking tiring. Your mood and self esteem will be near entirely dependent on other people's opinions.

Think back to a time when someone really pissed you off, maybe they were pissed off at the time? Maybe they lost £3000 overnight because Bitcoin crashed? Maybe they just found out yesterday that their girlfriend of five years cheated on them? Maybe they had a troubled childhood? Maybe they don't know how to handle their emotions?

You can't take their perception of you personally. They don't know your perception of yourself, they're just seeing you through their own perception.

Only YOU know your perception, and that's the only perception that should matter to you.