Mirror Mirror On The Wall...
Who really am I? Each of us has a mirror hanging on the walls of our conscience. Make sure you examine the reflection of yourself in this mirror as often as possible.
Suppose there’s a mirror that lets us see our true self. Not our bodily features, but our character, sentiments, inner dispositions, deep seated beliefs and most intimate desires.
Suppose you look into such a mirror, what would you see?
The most selfish of them all? – You’re too selfish to build any real, valuable friendship. You only get in touch with people when you need something. You instrumentalize relationships, changing and dumping people like diapers, after you’ve used them to serve your narrow-minded, narcissistic needs. You make no effort to offer anything of real value like being there for people at their low moments. You’re not volunteering anywhere because you always want to be the one receiving and not giving. You probably think about yourself only, and don’t care about committing some of your time and resources to projects and causes that will have real impact on the lives of real people around you.
The fakest of them all? – You represent yourself as what you’re not, spending money you don’t have and putting up a false pretentious façade on social media to impress people who don’t care about you. Your LinkedIn profile is exaggerated 10x and laced with manufactured qualifications and bogus accomplishments. Your Instagram page and WhatsApp status are documentary evidence of your wannabe celebrity lifestyle, a poor attempt at frivolous living. We can make a fortune buying you for what you’re really worth and selling you for what you think you’re worth. You’re afraid to take an informed stand and voice out your beliefs and convictions because you’re so concerned about what people will say. You’re always playing to the gallery. You make silly excuses for your bad behaviour, immaturity and lack of self-discipline, all in the name of self-empowerment, assertiveness and freedom to be yourself and do what you want. Those childish shenanigans only fool people like you. Tough words? Yes, because sugar-coating them does you no good.
The most wimpish of them all? – You don’t make any effort to form your conscience, to internalize values that will help you live a focused and upright life. Instead you feast on unimportant trivialities and consume all sorts of intellectual junk that thwart your worldview and screw up your priorities. You allow yourself to be blown in every direction by any kind of wind that comes along. You lack character.
The laziest of them all? – You’re busy doing nothing meaningful, postponing important things for later. You complain about not having any time to learn, but spend an incredible number of hours Netflix-ing and chilling your brain to obsolescence. You probably can’t even remember the last time you read anything serious. No studying. No certifications. Your career is in a rut because you’re not willing to do the hard work it takes to move forward professionally. Your relationship is losing steam because you’ve stopped doing the sweet little things you used to do when you first met your spouse/partner.
You’re perhaps your own worst enemy.
Or perhaps you are the fairest of them all. I really don’t know. Only you can answer that question when you look into that mirror.
Each of us has this mirror hanging on the walls of our conscience. Make sure you examine the reflection of yourself in this mirror as often as possible. As you do so, may you find the willpower to do all it takes to ensure that this reflection of you is beautiful.
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