The Hater phenomenon!

Well, it wasn't my intention to do a blog today, let alone one about haters. Especially,
as I have other topics and writings cued up for release into the wild; however,
a strange occurrence happened for me today.

As some of you may now, I'm on twitter @crazaytalent, mainly for the purposes of networking;  but with some fun and friendly interactions happening there, as well.  Anyway,
I am an avid reader, and follower of The Daily Love (@TheDailyLove, #TDL);
and they posted an interesting affirmation today.  To "rise above your haters". An awesome tidbit, to which I replied, a concept that occurred to me a while ago. "I stopped seeing my haters, once I stopped looking for them"!  At that, my twitter stream BLEW UP!! Seriously, upwards of 30 re-tweets, multiple replies and comments from people I don't know, lots of follower adds; and still counting... mind you, this was only 3hrs ago... for me... It's a lot!

It got me to thinking, how the term hater, and the concept of haters, has completely overrun our culture. A term born out of hip hop which saturated through to pop culture and into the mainstream conscience, to become, almost a world phenomenon. With seemingly everyone obsessing over the haters they have, and how many. Its almost amusing; to think about, how having haters and the amount of haters we have, is now a status symbol. A badge of honor, stating we are doing something right; something worthwhile. It really does make me chuckle when I think about it. Heck, I too am guilty off becoming momentarily obsessed with my haters; using them to bolster my own ego, and enhance my own "swagg".

Still, at some point, either in my goal oriented tunnel vision, or in my studies of the dharma... it dawned on me, being concerned with my "haters", supposed or otherwise... is just a waste of my own time and my own energy. That it's not with the haters, which I will find my value; and it's not with the haters, which will determine my worth. All of that is within myself! To think of it reminds me of lessons learned from both buddhism and acting. Lessons about accepting the truth's of others, realizing that what others feel or may be experiencing in any given moment, is not necessarily a reflection of me; or having anything to do with me really, but more so, internal issues within themselves. HaHaHa, as someone close to me often says "that's their shit!"... but what is 'my shit', is how I react and respond to it. So Ive learned to choose not to... I've learned that rather than waste my energy and my time; I'd rather focus on things that actually matter to me in my life.  On the things thats going to move me forward and not slow me down, stop me, or move me backwards; like hate so often does. I learned that, once I stopped looking for my haters... I stopped seeing haters altogether! So while the world around me seems to focus on their haters I'm focusing on my supporters, the team that builds, the people that love and a life that is better. Maybe it's a choice to be ignorant, but in my case... Ignorance is bliss!