Why is it difficult not to care about what others think of you? Do we control the way other people see and think about us?

Many people may say bad things about you in your life. But really that doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is what you think about yourself. We care what they say because we always want to be liked by others. If you know you are liked by someone it allows you to open up to that person and possible create a great friendship with that person. If you know they don't like you then a sense of paranoia is going to creep in because you try to stay away from the person and you make sure you don't say anything that can be taken as offensive. It will add to stress levels because you are always thinking about that person and if they are talking badly about you to someone or if they are spreading rumors, and is not a good feeling to have. We don't really have control of what people think about us because it is their choice to not like something about you as a person or as a friend. They have every right to not like me, if i did something to make them think bad of me then i deserve what ever they think, but I will try and talk to them about it and see if i can clarify why I did what I did and see if i can show that I'm not such a bad guy after all. If some one were to come and tell me that they don't like me straight to my face, i wouldn't care, if they don't like me thats their problem they probably weren't that important anyway so I end up losing nothing. For me it is very easy not to care about what others think about me, because I have more important things to worry about.