Being nonchalant is a superpower in a world where everyone cares about what other people think. It’s tough not to get anxious and overthink everything you do while doing it, but apparently, some people have managed to overthrow these social shackles.
That’s exactly what the people featured in this list are like. You’ll get a chance to read unhinged stories about them, and, who knows, maybe it will inspire you to worry less about what society thinks so that you can do whatever you want.
More info: Reddit
#1
This is one of my favorite “f**k it” stories. I used to work at a country club. There was a girl (let’s call her Mia) that had worked there for 3-4years before me. Mia was told she was to replace the wedding manger immediately when she started, but had YET to be given the job after 3-4 years. She confided in me that she was done and ready to quit and move on and this would be her last wedding. I told her to do what was best for her.
The country club hosted a lot of weddings and we would always rotate the girls who would take care of the bride and anything she needed. I did it four or five times and only had one bride that was slightly demanding but poor Mia had the worst luck and always got the bridezillas. Mia was one of the NICEST people I ever met. I was in the lobby setting up for cocktail hour. The hall to my left had two doors a closet and the bridal suite. Mia and the bride were in the hall and heard the bride start yelling at Mia about water. They were standing in the hall and I watched the whole thing go down:
Bride: I ASKED FOR COLD WATER! THIS WATER IS ROOM TEMPERATURE! CANT YOU DO THE ONE THING IM ASKING YOU TO DO?
Mia: ma’am you asked for a bowl of ice and a pitcher of room temperature water. You asked to put the ice in yourself. You didn’t want me to touch it.
Bride: WATER IS COLD! EVEN ROOM TEMPERATURE WATER ISNT THAT WARM! IM THE BRIDE! YOU WILL DO AS I SAY! THAT IS WHY YOU ARE HERE ISNT!? TO SERVE ME!
Mia: (smiles and clears her throat) Ma’am I have gotten you water three times now I’m sorry it is not to your liking, but you know what’s not to my liking? YOU, YOU F*****G A*****E! YOUR DRESS IS HIDEOUS! YOUR WEDDING IS HIDEOUS! PURPLE AND F*****G PALE GREEN!? WHAT ARE YOU?! F*****G BARNEY?! YOU LOOK LIKE F*****G BARNEY IN THAT DRESS!! JESUS CHRIST!! F**K YOU! F**K THIS S**T! I HAVE A MASTERS DEGREE FOR CHRIST SAKE I DON’T NEED THIS FROM YOU BARNEY LOOKING UGLY A*S B***H! F**K! THIS! S**T! (Storms to the office hands over her name tag and fob and leaves the bride in tears)
Mia works at a college in NC now. I miss her.
Image credits: ClassAndAnA*s
#2
I was in a McDonalds during lunch rush. A guy walked in and tried to rob the place. The manager told him he didnt have time to get robbed and just took the next person's order. The place was packed and the would be robber just left empty handed and ignored.
Image credits: iamdroopy
#3
In a meeting with the very arrogant boss of our department and the company executives, there was a question about a major mistake that costs the company a product recall.
Our boss laid the blame on our department, before he was over us, saying we had modified a piece of equipment incorrectly.
One of my co-workers, a very humble man, quietly said to nobody in particular "I have pictures in my notes". Meaning, "I am throwing the boss under the bus in front of every one of his superiors in the company." He hadn't planned this, he just happened to be incredibly meticulous in taking notes and pictures and documented absolutely everything. He proceeded to do so with complete disregard for retribution from our very vengeful boss. It was quite glorious to see someone so haughty and pious get brought down so beautifully by a low-level engineer and his meticulous note/picture taking.
Image credits: mechtonia
This might blow your mind, but a survey of 2000 Brits found that, on average, folks spend more than 6 years of their lives directly or indirectly worrying about other peoples’ opinions. That’s why it almost feels inspiring to read (some of) these stories where people threw caution to the wind and did exactly what they wanted.
We at Bored Panda reached out to Sarah Arnold-Hall to understand how to effectively stop worrying about what other people think. Sarah is a high-performance coach who specializes in helping ambitious people take consistent action towards their goals. She shared her thoughts below.
#4
So my parents owned an automotive garage. One day a guy comes in and says my headlights don’t work it’s the switch. Dad checks isn’t out and it isn’t the switch. The dude has four blown headlights. It was the old sealed beam headlights so it was expensive but not as expensive as a switch on the column. Anyway guy piece up the car, dad explains he just needed new headlamps not a switch. Dude thanks him, pays and leaves. He comes back a little later complaining that dad didn’t do what he asked and he was ripped off. Dad explained again that wasn’t his problem but he persisted. Mom gave him his money back but told him she needed to get the lights back. Dude says nah he’ll come back. In the moment of giving no f***s mom walks out and smashes all the lights with a hammer. She comes back in and sits down as the guy is yelling about calling the cops. Mom dials 911 and hands him the phone. The cops show up and they tell him he got his money back so the lights were moms property to do with as she pleased. He yelled and the police lady told him to leave before she wrote a ticket for driving with no lights.
Edit: : wow almost 2k upvotes. That’s cool! The garage was in a good part of town, then a bad part, now it’s good again. When the neighborhood was kind of crappy we met a lot of characters and had a lot of crazy stuff happen. My Dad sold the property a few years back and I miss working there and just taking all the craziness in.
Image credits: Nikon17
#5
Had a customer service manager talking to a woman about a return. He’d already told her he couldn’t do it a few times. She demanded he get his manager. He, no joke, spins a circle and says, “They said no.”.
Image credits: ZuchinniSquag
#6
When I was in sixth form, around 16/17, I suggested to my history class that we all take our chairs and move them to other side of the desks and face the back of the class as a joke.
We did so, our teacher walked in and just looked at us, grabbed his books/notes from his desk and moved to the back of the class, facing us and started the lesson. No one said a word about the change and he acted like he didn’t even notice.
I’m still friends with this teacher now at 22.
Image credits: CaminoFan
From wearing a simple outfit to acting a certain way in public, most of us overthink how others will judge us for the things we do. We asked Sarah why almost everyone places so much weight on other people’s opinions. She said: “You can never be certain what anyone else is thinking.”
“You are the creator of everyone else's thoughts. Not in their mind, but in your mind, which is where the anxiety is happening. Once you realize other people's opinions are really just your own brain telling a story, you have a choice: to decide others are thinking good things about you or to decide they're thinking bad things about you.”
“Which do you prefer? I prefer to decide they are thinking good things. But sometimes, when I'm having a hard day, and I just can't imagine they're thinking good things, I choose to think they're thinking bad things about me and just let them be wrong. It's okay for people to be wrong about you. There's freedom in that,” she added.
#7
My boss' girlfriend works in the company. One time she was in my section just complaining about something to my manager, who was silently working. Getting no answer she asks him:
- Manager, are you ignoring me?
To which he promptly replies:
- Yes, I am.
She then just left.
Image credits: Ayawa
#8
One guy I knew was a pretty good varsity tennis player. Coach gave the no drinking/smoking speech. Something to the effect of you need to choose between partying and tennis. Dude just silently got up and left the team meeting.
Image credits: anon
#9
An a*****e customer in a restaurant I used to work in asked for the manager. After explaining the situation, the manager realized she was just being rude and agreed with the employee who was getting yelled at by the customer. At which point the customer tells the manager to "Go f**k herself". The manager then proceeds to bend over in a weird way to make it seem like she's trying to literally f**k herself. Then she shrugs, says: "Can't" and walks away.
Image credits: YoMomIsANiceLady
Nobody truly wants to be stuck in a negative loop where they give too much weight to the opinions of other people. But it’s important to understand that sometimes, these feelings stem from things that aren’t fully in our control.
According to psychologists, we might care so much about what other people think because it’s wired in humans to want to be liked and accepted by others. So behaving and acting in a “socially acceptable” way may win the favor of the folks around us. It’s also sometimes a learned behavior that stems from our culture or the teachings of our parents.
#10
I used to be a manager at Petco and we had this fish tank that was very old, it was original to the store and it was being held together by Band-Aids and good intentions. we kept requesting it be replaced, we were putting more money into it than it was worth at this point. but corporate kept saying no, the new tanks cost well over $1,000 and they would rather chuck out a few hundred every month or so, because that made sense.
Well we hired this young punk a*s kid to be aquatic specialist. He was bright but did not have a good background, he was a criminal. He stole guns and was a d**ggie. I don't know how he got hired on, he was a touch above worthless on a good day. on his first day I jokingly said if he can come up with a way to break this tank I would much appreciate it. Within 2 weeks he broke the tank and showed me how he broke it so it would look like an accident, silicone had been cut in a way that it would leak badly without it being able to be fixed. He didn't even hesitate, didn't even seem remorseful or anything.
Within a month we had a new tank ?.
Image credits: haydawg8
#11
I once was walking down the street with one of my bosses. Total stoner. Him not me. We go to cross the street at a stop sign and get part way across and the car lurches forward and hits my boss hard enough that he falls onto the hood. He was mid sentance when the car hit him and he literally didn't even skip a beat. He just continued his sentence like nothing at all happened while keeping eye contact with me the entire time! Not only that but when the driver yelled asking if he was ok he didn't even look over...just gave a little hand wave to the driver while still keeping eye contact with me and chatting away.
Image credits: LethalMindNinja
#12
I teach pre-kindergarten at a public school. My students are 4 and 5 years old. Last year, I had a rule that no more than 3 kids could be at a learning center at any given time. When we transitioned from carpet time to center time, I would call on the kids who were sitting quietly to pick their centers first. I had two kids sitting next to each other: James, who was sitting quietly waiting to be called on, and Allison, who kept loudly and rather obnoxiously announcing that she wanted to go to the sensory table, which I had just stocked with new toys. Two kids had already chosen to go there, so there was only one spot left.
I called on James first. He walked up to the center chart and I asked him where he wanted to go. He looked at the center chart, then at Allison, then at the center chart, then back at Allison, and while staring straight at her, jammed his finger at the sensory table.
While he was walking away, I said, "wow, James, that's cold man." But I don't think he heard me over Allison's screaming.
Image credits: Hopesick_2231
Caring about others’ judgments isn’t always a bad thing. We asked Sarah Arnold-Hall in what kinds of situations it would be okay to place importance on what other people think. She told us that “caring about (listening and respecting) people’s opinions is different from letting their opinions control your decisions and feelings.”
“I absolutely care what my partner, my family, and my friends think about what I do. But they don't get to call the shots, ever. Just yesterday, I noticed myself not wanting to let someone down by pulling out of a commitment I'd made that I didn't have the capacity for. But then I realized I would actually be letting myself down if I followed through with it.”
“I experienced about 5 minutes of discomfort to send the text, which saved me months of discomfort of following through on something I had no time, energy, or desire to do,” she shared. Meaning that we absolutely can place importance on what other people think, but we shouldn’t go overboard doing that in a way that harms us.
#13
I was in line at the grocery store a few years ago. Ahead of me was a mother with her daughter who was about 5 years old. The little girl had a lollypop that was in her mouth most of the time... until she pulled it out to ask her mom something and promptly dropped it. Before anyone could say anything, she'd swooped it back up and popped it back in her mouth. The cashier looked disgusted. Mom just shrugged and said, "She's eaten worse," and continued the transaction.
Image credits: JaiRenae
#14
My mum and I didn't get along growing up, partly due to her alcohol dependency. We solely relied on welfare and then I became the main income provider at 15 through part-time jobs, before moving out on my own at 16.
It was the same argument every day, I would bank transfer the rental and utility payments but refused to hand over cash because she'd spend it on liquor. She began throwing objects and flipping out, and eventually said "Fine, if you don't care about money, why don't you just cut up my credit cards?" in a baiting sort of way. She handed me scissors and two credit cards.
I just stared at them blankly and being an a*****e teenager, then cut up her credit cards.
She absolutely lost it. My brother lazily looked over at the scissors she handed me and said "What exactly did you expect?".
Image credits: manlikerealities
#15
Had an entry level programming class in college where a few students came in with multiple boxes of eggos and a toaster. They just plugged it in at the side of the class and started passing out plates of waffles. The professor eventually noticed, asked if they were making waffles to which they confirmed, chuckled, and kept right on from where he left off. . . Tasty : ).
Image credits: juggleaddict
Pretty much everyone featured on this list just doesn’t seem to care about society’s judgments. It’s an oddly freeing state of being and one that probably many of us aspire to achieve. That’s why we asked Sarah Arnold-Hall how to take action and stop giving so much of a damn about outside opinions.
She shared her experience, saying: “I like to imagine I have an inner jury of people who get to help me make my decisions, but ultimately, I am the judge, and I have the final say. They get to make their argument and present their evidence, but what happens next is up to me. I also get to choose who is on that inner jury.”
She also added that “just because a friend, family member, or stranger has an opinion doesn't mean they get to be on the jury. Every case, every decision in my life gets its own jury, and I actively imagine selecting people who are on it (and sometimes, I have to consciously remove people from the jury when I accidentally let them in!).”
#16
One time there was a horrific wreck on the interstate that had me stuck there in traffic for about 5 hours. About an hour into it, a guy in front of me said "f**k this", popped the trunk, pulled out a motorized razor scooter and rode away.
He hadn't come back by the time everyone else started moving.
Image credits: UndividedIndecision
#17
Worked in a movie theater and an older man came to the box office to complain and ask for a refund for his movie, I don’t remember the reason but he was furious and disgusted by the film, cursing under his breath.
My co-worker gave him a refund and the gentlemen still wasn’t satisfied. He said “this is b******t I need to talk to your manager.” My co-worker calls the manager. The man buffs and puffs as he waits, looks at my co-worker and says, “Aren’t you even going to ask me why I’m upset?” My co-worker looks him dead in the eye and says, “I make minimum wage mother f****r, they don’t pay me to care, they pay me to sell tickets.”
This man exploded the manager has to diffuse the situation. I don’t remember what he said but he got the guy to leave. My co-worker was only given a slap on the wrist as his ballsy-ness was unseen by anyone in that theater. Preston really never gave a f**k, even when they did eventually fire him.
Image credits: Idirectstuffandthing
#18
My mum and her sister never really had a great relationship, but one thing really stands out. My aunt cycled through boyfriends pretty quickly. She was one of those people who after spending a couple of weeks with someone was convinced they'd be together for the rest of their lives - only to feel the same about someone else a couple of months later. At 26 she'd already been divorced once after a rushed marriage (no, no kids involved) and was engaged again to a guy she'd known for less than half a year and only been dating for three months.
Others in the family were trying to find subtle, tactful ways to hint to her that they thought she was moving too fast and he wasn't a great match for her, but my mum ran out of sh*ts to give at a family dinner in this exact way:
Aunt (to mum): The bridesmaids are wearing purple, so your dress needs to-
Mum: Oh, I'm not going.
Aunt: /WHAT?!/
Mum: I'm busy that day. Don't worry, I'll come to your next wedding instead.
They didn't talk again until after the next divorce. Mum did indeed go to her next wedding instead. And the one after that. And the one after that (my aunt's current husband).
Image credits: MerylSquirrel
Let’s face it: nobody can truly be free of societal judgments and other people’s opinions, but they definitely shouldn’t control our entire lives. There should be a fine balance between caring and not caring about what others think. It’s definitely a good goal to aspire to.
Have you ever been this nonchalant about something? If so, tell us about a time you did something without giving a damn about the consequences.
#19
Friend of mine stumbled out of the pub (Liverpool) and got hit by a taxi passing by. Got in the taxi, went home and slept it off.
#20
I was on an internship that was a train wreck. I started later than some of the other interns. Turns out our main office space would flood when it rained. I came in to find the lobby and office with an inch of standing water.
One of the other interns walked in, looked at all the water, sighed, sloshed over to his computer, picked up his power strip, flicked the water off, sat down, turned his computer on, and started working. Dude barely seemed to notice.
Image credits: The_Bitter_Bear
#21
The nurse-in-charge at our emergency department has been working there for 20 years. Our hospital is in a rough area, she's seen it all. We have people come in with gunshot wounds, concealed weapons. She has single-handedly tackled violent patients with superhuman strength because they're high on [illegal substance], etc.
A disheveled guy came to be treated for assault, to be arrested after discharge. He was giving everyone s**t all night, almost made his nurse cry. The nurse-in-charge called from the nurses station to cut that out. He called her a "miserable, old fat c**t".
The nurse-in-charge picked up a chocolate doughnut from the nurses station and without breaking eye contact, started slowly chewing it in front of him. Then she called the police to pick him up.
Image credits: manlikerealities
#22
In 9th grade one of my teachers said that old threat that goes like "If you don't want to learn, then get up and leave." to the whole class. This kid actually gets up and leaves the classroom. It took a few mimutes for the teacher to notice while we all quietly laughed. When she does notice, she send someone to get the kid which takes like,, another 10 minutes and when they do get back, the guy is super chill. The teacher is so in shock that she can barely scold him. Kid just shrugs and goes "You said we could leave." he then proceeds to sit back down and act like nothing happened. He just didn't give a f**k about what the teacher was telling him afterwards.
Image credits: Delusional-Writer
#23
A buddy of mine back in high school, scrawny little white kid. One day his sister had her "biker" boyfriend and 2 of his friends probably in their mid 20s over. We were gonna go to his place and play some video games and I guess the boyfriend was being a douche and muttered something under his breath when we walked by.
My buddy this 13 year old kid went to his backyard into the shed, grabbed what looked like a 2x4 and just went to town on 3 grown a*s men. They went running down the street and he fully chased them, not a single f**k was given that day.
I don't see him as much anymore but we try to catch up once a year and it's a story we always laugh about.
Image credits: Pyroxy3
#24
When I cam out as gay, I decided to come out to each of my siblings individually. By the time I got to my younger brother he just said "cool" and went back to what he was doing. Like most of my family he's very religious, so he does believe that homosexuality is a sin, but in that moment, he didn't feel like he had to remind me that like some of my family did.
Image credits: Bizmythe
#25
A guy in my department had a long-running feud with his line manager (who was known to be a bit of a d**k). After a particularly tense email exchange, he responded with an email that had an underlying "go f**k yourself" message, and CC'd the entire department, including our senior management team, and the upper management of the entire organisation. It was a beautifully crafted rage-quit. Sadly, we didn't get to see the follow-up.
Image credits: LittleBitOdd
#26
My aunt disapproved of her nephew's upcoming wedding and vocalized this numerous times (they were only getting married because the girl was pregnant).
My aunt ended up going to the wedding wearing pajamas.
They got divorced like 6 months later.
Image credits: smoothjazz1
#27
Girl I went to high school with had some food issues. We had some teachers who would watch us during lunch time to make sure no one left or caused any major trouble. This one English teacher used to constantly ask this girl if she ate (she very rarely did) and would lecture her on how unhealthy she was being, etc.
One day after a particular "I'll call your parents, you're only hurting yourself" talk that everyone could hear, this girl picked up her sandwich and quietly ate it, then proceeded to walk over to the trash can, shoved her fingers down her throat, and vomited while looking this woman directly in the eye.
Image credits: EPsych6534
#28
This guy from a while back who didn’t give a f**k the bar he was in was being robbed.
Image credits: viskoviskovisko
#29
Second semester senior year of high school, after AP season, this kid walked in every day with nothing but a pillow and a new quart-size bottle of iced tea. Not only did she not give a f**k, but the teachers also didn't.
Image credits: meepbotl
#30
My mom worked in a hospital in a very shady area and would start work at 5:30am. She apparently rolled a stop sign and got a ticket. According to her she always rolled the stop sign around there because she was too nervous to actually stop at that time of the morning. When it came to paying the ticket, their online system wasn’t working so she had to send a check. In the memo she wrote “(area) cops hate nurses”. She then went on vacation and when she returned she had a letter from the city saying she as a warrant out for her arrest because some how her check got “lost in the mail” Not gonna lie, her screaming at whoever on the phone really made my day.
Image credits: frankenramen
#31
I went to Lollapalooza in 2009. On the first night the Kings of Leon were playing. After a song or two, the lead singer Caleb Followill, very unenthusiastically says “You might know the words to this next song. Sing along. Or don’t.” They then started playing S*x is on Fire. The man looked and acted like he’d rather have been anywhere else on Earth, than headlining Lollapalooza.
Image credits: anon
#32
I know a guy who got in trouble for being late to work so he started punching in at 8:59. He also pulled out a loaf of bread and made a peanut butter sandwhich in the middle of a meeting (he had his own jar of peanut butter, butter knife, and sandwhich baggy).
Image credits: Stevieeeer
#33
I was in a Jiu-Jitsu match against a guy that was notorious for not tapping out. I bent his arm 5 different ways that an arm should not bend.
Even had him in an armbar with his arm bent 20 degrees backwards while I was hanging upside down from his neck like a giant necklace. His ELBOW POPPED and he STILL wouldn't tap out!
Ended up tearing his foot out of the socket before he finally tapped.
#34
Once watched a man walk up to an apartment building, hit the buzzer, then he looked up and realized there was smoke pouring out of multiple upstairs windows (no police or firefighters on site yet).
Dude just shrugged, turned around and took a drink from his big styrofoam cup as he walked right by.
#35
I went on a white water rafting trip and at the end of the night all the guides stayed at the same campground as the rest of us. They were a lot douchey and when we all had a campfire and beers, they were standoffish and then started talking s**t about us (anyone who went on the tour).
I got drunk and took a dump in one of their kayaks. I was pretty pleased.
#36
Had a coworker get almost batsh*t drunk during a shift, we were waiters and he was able to keep his "cool" during the whole shift, it was after the shift ended that we realized he was way too drunk.
