It’s good to care about the important things in life; family, friends, school, your career, etc. These things are worth your time and energy. Create strong relationships with these people and devote yourself to them because they’re worth it. But we also care about really insignificant things as well. What people think of us and what other people are doing. We need to invest our time on things that are worth our time and emotion.

Read below on how to care appropriately.

1. Stop obsessing over your social media. We are constantly checking Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook. Why do you care about what people are doing every second of everyday and why do you feel the need to post everything you’re doing? Take a step back, do you really care about what that girl you used to know is doing on a Saturday night? Put your phone away and enjoy where you are. Whether it be at Toad’s, at a concert, in your room with friends, these moments are so much more important than whatever you are looking at on your phone.

2. Stop caring about what other people think of you. People aren’t going to like you. It’s a fact. And that’s okay. Does that mean you change who you are so that everyone will like you? If you act like yourself, you’ll find people who like you for who you are and not who you are trying to be. Sometimes people aren’t meant to be friends or acquaintances. That doesn’t mean you go hating or disliking people who don’t like you back. Keep moving through life and spend time with people who make you happy. Which brings me to my next point.

3. Spend time with people who you care about. Surround yourself with people who make you want to try harder in school, who make you want to succeed, who make you want to treat other people better. Sometimes you get caught up in a group of people who bring out a side of you that you don’t like. Do you get along because you spend most of your time gossiping? Come on, those aren’t real friends. Find the people who build you up and genuinely care about you and find people who you also genuinely care about.

4. Associate yourself with things you actually care about. I love The Chronicle. We work our asses off every single week to produce a product for thousands of people to read. We spend too many hours and have too many meetings because we care. This is an organization I proudly associate myself with. Along with WQAQ. It’s comprised of people who genuinely care about one another and are able to work while enjoying each other’s company. I proudly associate myself with these organizations. Do you feel the same way about your organizations? Is it an image thing? Is it worth it? Involve yourself with things you care about.

5. Life is too damn short. We only get this one life, why would you spend any of it caring about what other people think? Live your life because one day you’ll look back and wish you did it differently.