Matters and Anti-Matters

Some things that seem essential don’t matter. Other things that you take for granted do matter.

It doesn’t matter how many friends you have on Facebook, or how many followers on Twitter, or how many connections or followers on LinkedIn. It does matter that you have friends you care about and who care about you, and it also matters that you have real connections, people you know and who know you.

It doesn’t matter what other people think of you. Their opinions belong to them and say nothing whatsoever about you. What does matter is that you are a person of character and integrity, your character being more important than your reputation, and your integrity is one of the most valuable of all your assets.

It doesn’t matter where you come from, nor do the circumstances of your birth count for much. The things that are out of your control matter not. Where you are going and whom you are becoming—or have become—is what matters.

Your past mistakes don’t matter. The Universe has laws that are structured in such a way that the past gets further away from you—and you from it—the more time passes. What matters is what you do today, what you do with this present moment (and there may be something to the idea that we call “now” the present, a word that also indicates the receiving of a gift).

It doesn’t matter where you went to school, how well you did, what your major was, or what you did or did not do with your degree. What matters is that you educate yourself and do the work to be the best version of yourself, whatever that means to you.

It doesn’t matter how other people measure success, many of those ideas are included in the small paragraphs above. It matters what you consider a successful life, it being yours and yours alone, free and clear of any obligation to what other people might want from you. However, it also matters that you work to reach your full potential, something that no human is likely to have ever accomplished, and the most worthwhile pursuit of your time and energy.