People who know me well know that I’m pretty laissez-faire about most things. Even some quizzes I’ve done point to my tendency towards “different strokes for different folks”! For the most part, I like trying new things and unconventional things, and so I like letting other people do that too. Or rather, I really enjoy seeing other people do that, and sometimes I try to nudge people who seem to be conventionally stuck to try something else. (It doesn’t always work, obviously.)

I’m sure you’ve met people who’ve tried to meddle in your matters. Maybe they are well-intentioned, but they attempt to make you change your ways before you’ve had the chance to experiment. And that… sucks? I hate it when someone tries to tell me something is not going to work before I’ve tried.

I just think that all of us can give some leeway for others to do things the way they want. We don’t all need to have the same frame of reference. I’m not more uniquely qualified than anyone else to live their lives. If they want to try something, let them try! I think we need to encourage other people more, not block them and give them more hesitation and anxiety. Live and let live.

A drawback of this attitude is being too indulgent with people. Sometimes they do need someone to tell them to get their stuff together. I tend to not be too adept at that. Now I try to give my opinions if I think they can help, but don’t go hard on people to take that into account.

Then there is the counterpoint of not not letting it run into being cavalier. It’s good to let people do their thing, but it should be intentional. Lacking the proper concern for things is obviously bad! But properly concerning yourself with letting people try their own path is good, I like to think.