Do You Know The Person In The Mirror?

  Do you know who you are?  No really.  Are you really aware of who you really are as far as your personality?  This includes you strengths, weaknesses, flaws, habits, quirks, and so on.  In order to really know who you are you have to have one important thing called "self-awareness".  That is the kind of thing where you step outside of your self, not literally, and evaluate the things you do on almost a daily basis.

  Most people do not have the ability to "self-evaluate" themselves because they are so busy just living their lives that they don't stop and watch what they are doing as a kind of sanity-check.  It's an important thing to take the time to do in order to know if things you are doing are good, bad, stupid, or brilliant.

  For instance the way you interact with people would be a good example.  Have you ever had a confrontation with someone?  After it was over did you ask you self things like "Could I have handled that better?" or "Should I have just punched them in the nose and gotten it over with?".   I'm just kidding about the punching some in the nose.  I by no means advocate violence in any situation other than self-defense.

  Many time when we have instance of interaction with other people there are many ways to handle things, but many people are on what I like to call "auto-pilot" where they do not stop and think about what they say or do, but instead they just act or react without pause.  If people would take the time to look back on how they handle situations they may find that sometime just the smallest change in what they did or said may have made a huge impact on the outcome.

 I am constantly reflecting on how I do things sometimes to the point that I shutter about when I think "That was really stupid." or "Why did I say that?".  Unfortunately we can't change the past, but we can certainly learn from it, hopefully.

 Learning from our past does not mean just the things we say or how we interact with other people.  This include our actions as well, like driving excessive speed on the freeway and getting a ticket.  Many people would probably be thinking about the ticket more than why they got it in the first place, but some people would be thinking why did I decide to speed at all.  Who do you think is most likely to learn from that mistake in this situation?  The person thinking about the ticket or the person reflecting back asking why they did it in the first place.

 These are just some small examples about how some people reflect back on their actions and some people only look forward.  It is a good idea to look back from time to time and do a little self-evaluation.  Many people have heard the phrase that if we do not learn from the past we are doomed to repeat it.  I think that is a good mantra for moving forward in life.

The Low Down of Being Superior

  I'm amazed at the level of stupidity I see on a daily basis, but yet I have to consider that more than likely someone out there would also add me to that same list.  We all have our faults and flaws and for some their day would not be complete without pointing out someone else's short-comings just to raise themselves a notch of two on the ladder of their own self-worth.

  I myself am guilty of doing just that on more than one occasion and for what reason I still do not know.  For some reason there is something rewarding about feeling superior to others no matter how true it is or not.  Why do you think they have things like contests, marathons, competitions and so on.

  Being better than the next person is rewarded in many different facets of our society, but not all.  There are many different ways that having superiority over thy fellow man is not a good thing.  Especially when it means the potential of demonstrating it will actually do harm be it mental or physical or both.

  Almost every single species on this planet is competitive mating, territory, or food, but we are the only species that I can think of that is just outright mean or vicious just because we can be.  You don't see examples of animals killing one another if they have a bad day, but humans can and have done just that.