Unoffendable
Someone said something this week that stopped me.
"The better you know yourself, the harder you are to offend."
I was at a leadership session, and the speaker was talking about identity — how deeply knowing who you are changes the way you absorb the world. Her point was simple: we are so easily offended these days. Everything and everyone, if given power in our minds, can offend us. But if we actually know ourselves, and like who we are, the insignificant things lose their grip.
I've been calling it unoffendable. It's not a real word. But it should be.
Not entirely unoffendable, of course. There are real hurts. Real wounds. But how often do we let something untested, unsupported, or honestly irrelevant really bother us?
I still get offended. My goal isn't perfection — it's reducing the downtime. Turning down the noise faster. Because I value my peace. I love peace. So why chase or entertain distress?
My daughter Lola is graduating from college this weekend. We were walking last night and I made a joke that wasn't really funny. I teased her and immediately regretted it. I said I was sorry. She shrugged and said something about not letting little things bother her.
She knows herself. At twenty-two. And watching her brush that off with such ease might make me more proud than the diploma.
That's the thing about knowing who you are. It doesn't just help you succeed. It helps you stay unbothered by the things that were never really about you in the first place.