How Others See You
When you are trying to accomplish a goal, something big, do faces pop into your head as a reason why you won’t achieve that goal? It’s kind of strange isn’t it?
Do we even know why those faces appear? But they seem to be negative, even if the face is a positive person in our life. For some reason that face represents a reason we can’t accomplish that goal. There’s something protruding from our unconscious mind. Junk that’s been gathered in the negative compartments.
So, let’s say it’s the face of your boss. Do we look at your boss as an opposition to your goal? Do we look at that person as one who just would never expect us to achieve a goal like that? If that is the case, then we’re going to let their belief/opinion shape our experience and the outcome of our decisions.
So many times we let what other people believe about us shape us into who we are - or at least who we think we are. It’s crazy when you think about it, but we do it all the time. It’s only their opinion based on very little knowledge of us. We react certain ways around certain people, because that is who they believe we are. And we accept it.
We let the expectations of others influence what we accomplish. That is just unacceptable. Remember, the word “person” comes from the Latin “persona” and literally means “the mask of an actor.” So do you wear YOUR mask, or the mask that others expect you to be wearing at any given time. Or do you choose to wear the mask they accept of you simply because?
Think about your reputation, personal and professional. How do people see you? Did you know you have as many reputations as people who know you? No two people are going to see you exactly the same. Each forms their own opinion … and it is almost certainly not the true-you.
When you are interacting with people, it’s actually like there are four distinct personalities at play. Your four masks.
- How you see yourself.
- How the other person sees you.
- How you see the other person.
- How the other person sees themselves.
No do you understand why relationships are so confusing? It can become a great big mess. One person loves you, another person says you’re incompetent, while another one says you’re nothing more than a fake.
No one knows who you really are and what you are capable of. And honestly, you are capable of anything. You are boundless fountain of unlimited potentiality. Do not let even one single person’s interpretation of you influence what you want. No matter how important that person is to you. Take a few moments each day and connect with the Divine within you. You’ll get direction from that still small voice as long as your screaming ego is quieted for a few minutes.
You’ve heard highly successful business people say “I started from nothing.” Most people would want to be technical and say “well, you had to start with something, ’cause you get something from nothing.” But you can. This is the Truth. In the ancient Hebrew it is called the “Ayin.” This is the void. The “nothingness” where unlimited potentiality emerges from. In Genesis it says in the beginning the Earth was void. All came forth from the void.
Just a thought …
~Justin Taylor, ORDM., OCP., DM.
