EXACTLY. As was commented, this is the reason nobody's ever noticed their butler leaves a trail of hellfire after him everywhere he goes. They are too busy worrying about themselves and how they look to others.
There's a couple really valuable thoughts you can glean from this very accurate observation.
one: if you're a very self-conscious person who worries a lot about how you appear to others, you can relax. EVERYBODY secretly believes they are the weird one and are far too busy worrying about how they appear to notice the things you imagine are wrong or wonky or strange about you. Unless you have a pineapple growing out the top of your head, or something equally arresting different about you, we are all too busy worrying about ourselves to worry about you.
And anyway the only thing off about you is likely how hard you are worrying about how odd you think you are. So for god's sake relax. You're fine. We're all fine.
Secondly, if you ever do have need of sneaking about, remember this fact. Most people are too busy obsessing about themselves to notice what you're getting up to. Being aware of this is the reason so few criminals get caught at whatever they're doing because the average human is far too self-obsessed to notice what others are doing. Real spies, thieves, and other ne'er-do-wells count on this fact to get done what they need to do right under your nose. Only those who have lived through the kinds of things that give you PTSD are really watching. And there aren't enough of them to make that much of a difference.
Are you someone who gets paralyzed in the face of things like public speaking? Taking these facts to heart might well cure your paralysis. THose of us who are terminally shy might be able to help themselves by meditating on this. Do you believe yourself clumsy? socially inept? Afraid of people? Taking this to heart might change your world.
If you do seem to have more accidents than the average person, it could be that you are filling your head with internal talk of how in inept you think you are, or how badly these things usually go for you that you have no mental room to pay proper attention to what is around you, where your hands and feet are and what they're doing. This will lead to exactly the kinds of accidents you expect to have. A self-fulfilling prophecy! Instead, try noticing what's going on around you, focus on other shy people, other folks who seem to expect to have 'bad luck' and see if you don't notice how they are almost making these things happen to them. Zero in on what people around you are doing and talking about. You'll be far less likely to get accused of being an airhead if you strive to do this.
Poor Finny, and to a lesser extent Mey-Rin as well, are patron saints of the distracted and the clumsy. They are so busy thinking their self-defeating thoughts they consistently fail to notice they are polishing the bannisters with the shoe polish again, failing to check if the weed sprayer is properly closed, or if what they read on the label of that laundry soap made sense. They cause so much of their own problems through distracting themselves with defeatist thinking. And so many of us do the same thing we immediately identify with their woes because we recognise ourselves in them! And the demon butler certainly doesn't help, with how he pressures them. We all know people like this who take secret delight in making things worse for nervous people. Of course we really shouldn't expect Sebastian to be interested in helping them to do better. He's a demon! And the more inept they are, the brighter his talents shine. I have no idea what excuse the humans who act this way might have.
But there you are. The next time you catch yourself filling your own head with predictions of how badly this is going to turn out, why not stop yourself and instead try paying more attention to what's going on around you and see if things don't turn out a bit better.
jbbartram-illu
stormborns
jacobvanloon
germansingergirl
dailybridgerton
janainaart
tangentwithtanner
kaledo-art
