Some times we surprise ourselves big time. Does happen you know. Generally if someone taunts you, you might take it up as a challenge and try to beat that. But sometimes you're more intelligent and you feel how funny it is that they wanted to taunt you. You say, "really? Thanks you cared so much!" Others' opinions or critique is just not worth the attention we sometimes end up paying to it. It might hurt. But if we are still focussed on what we want, we are pretty much unhurt. Or the thing might not be such a prestige issue to you in the first place. When we realize how unhurt we are by things that might have affected us, we realize our strength for standing up for ourselves. Thats a lovely feeling.
This particular quality is also described in the book called The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand, "It just hurts to a certain point. And then, there's no pain."
Painting by Deepa Goyal - "Nears but does not touch"
Painting by Deepa Goyal - "Nears but does not touch"
