Seeing ourselves as others see us

If only we had some idea of how others see us. We might be made uncomfortable at times, but we would have some chance of amending our least admirable traits.

Regardless of the increase in society-wide inconsiderate behavior, most people feel too uncomfortable to call others on their bad behavior.

It takes only a moment for most of us to call to mind some behaviors we least like in our friends and colleagues! Usually traits they are utterly oblivious to... And which we don't have the heart or the interest to tell them about. It's easier to avoid the aggravation unless there's a compelling reason to do so.

So we stumble through our lives, fibbing, excusing, manipulating, demanding and generally being focussed on our desires and needs to the exclusion of others'. Worse, we think we're getting away with it because no-one has pointed out how transparent we are, some if not all the time.

According to Bob Sutton, author of The No Asshole Rule, we all act like a jerk sometimes: a bona fide asshole is someone who acts like that all the time.

If we could only see ourselves as others see us.

This is post 94 of 100 posts in 100 days.
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