When we wake up in the morning and prepare for the day’s activities, be it work or school, a close friend of ours is the mirror. We turn to the mirror for our reflection, to see what we are, and it gives us exactly that – our reflection. It shows us how the clothes we have decided to wear look on us. The truth is that the mirror gives us what we have already given ourselves.
In life, there will be a countless number of times we will expect others to treat us in a particular manner and they treat us in another. Sometimes we do not quite understand it when they treated us contrary to our expectations. Soon enough, we discover the fact that people will treat us the way we treated ourselves.
This simple knowledge completely changed my whole outlook of life. From junior high school, I started telling myself I was a smart guy; that I was brilliant, and for a boy sharing first name with Einstein, I told myself I was definitely good at mathematics. Before I began having these internal views of myself I was the complete opposite. My average position in a class of forty was between twenty and thirty. I saw myself as average and of course, my teachers referred to me as one of the average kids in their class.
The more I considered myself as brilliant, the more I worked towards becoming exactly that. In my last year of junior high school, one teacher referred to me as the most brilliant boy in the class. The way I viewed myself was how others were viewing me. Like the mirror, the only thing others will see is what we have put on and they will reflect back to us how we have already viewed ourselves.
So have a positive opinion of yourself. It gives you the desire and energy to make the gradual changes to change others’ perception of you. Don’t get me wrong, it will take time, but it will be worth it; you can trust me on that one too.
Download the full book (52 Lessons of Life) for FREE
Share your view on this lesson using the comment section below
10 Responses
well said. u jux inspired me wit dis… thanx a million for this expensive motivation.
@ Maud, thanks a lot, it is comments like this that keeps me going
Alana Jayne Spence Inspirational! I am 54 yrs of age and today i realised I don’t see myself as others do! recently I discovered I do brighten peoples lives! I need to believe more in myself and understand that negativity from others is often from their jealousy or that I rebuffed their intentions. I don’t know why its so difficult to believe in yourself!! I am confident in some ways but very insecure in others. Thankyou I enjoyed reading your story!xx
Dear Alana, loads of thanks for your kind words, aside of others seeing us the way we see ourselves, sometimes others see more than we see in ourselves, they see the potential of what we can become, if we put in the offer.
This is forever true. No wonder the Bible says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is… If we all stop seeing ourselves as grasshoppers before the the sons of Anak, our God will make our “sons of Anak” the grasshoppers… Thanks for sharing this piece with me… God bless you and uphold you in the faith…. keep being rapture-conscious
loads of thanks Ama, the Bible is really a book for guidance on the way of living a fulfilling live, we should turn to it for directions for our steps
i totally agree with this quote. Its true that people will view us the way we present ourselves. They will also believe we are who we believe ourselves to be.. As for me, when i look myself in the mirror and like what i see, my confidence rises and i am able to confront my day with a lot of courage. Unfortunately, many do not have that special moment for themselves when they view themselves in a mirror and take time to reflect on their image, their life, their journey in life and where they want to be in the future… they simply look at their image just to check if their hair has not fallen out or their face looks good and there they go. Sometimes even forgetting how they look like later in the day…
We all have busy lives but we all deserve that special moment to inspire ourselves.
It my hope many more people will be like you – more people who will look into the mirror and feel confident to face the challenges of life. Indeed as we check our physical image in the mirror is it a special moment to reflect on our lives journey. Tons of thanks for your comment
this is so true man.. i google “people view you on how you view yourself” and i found your website..this is pure gold.. i will apply it in my daily life.. thank you so much man!
Dear John, thanks for you kind words…we owe it to ourselves to create the kind of person we want others to see when they look at us