What do you see?

Fit for vanity or fit for purpose, i would like to think both. Ever tried shaving without a mirror, possible but not enjoyable. We can spend hours looking at ourselves in the mirror but often what we see can be far from the truth and far from what others see. I recently did an exercise where I listed five adjectives about myself and then five adjectives on how I believe people see me, very interesting exercise and it took me a little while longer to complete the latter. What was different, possibly my self confidence, not in myself but how I believe people perceive me.

“I am what I think you think I am” is a quote by American sociologist Charles Horton Cooley. It's part of his "looking-glass self" theory, which explores how people develop their sense of self based on how they think others see them. I believe most of us live in a false sense of self, self doubt and lack of belief in oneself is a result of programming received from others. Unknowingly people cast their own limiting beliefs or opinions onto us which we then take on as our own. Food for thought, for every self limiting belief there is a memory attached of where someone has instilled this in conversation with us. Revisit those memories and conversations, identify the limitations or false opinions imposed on you, where they originated from and how they were never yours to start with. Release them and take the time to go back to when you were a child, what games did you play? What did you love doing? Reconnect with that inner child and start building an authentic vision of yourself as there is only one uniquely beautiful and diverse you.