You ever get that feeling that you're not sure what your purpose is? I know that sounds vague, but really think about it. Let's start small scale. Think about your group of friends and think about the roles that each one of them play in that group. Think about your role in that group and ask yourself if that was the role you wanted to fulfill. Think about the "popular" roles (i.e. the funny guy, the brains, the looks, etc.) and then think about the "not-so-popular" roles (the drama queen, the promiscuous one, the needy one, etc.). Where do you fall in all of this? I'm not going to continue with the hypothetical questions; I just wanted to prove a point.
How do you overcome what you are versus what you want to be? These are challenges that many individuals struggle with in life: being what they want to be, and being they are not. All of this may sound trivial, but think about it; you can apply this premise to almost every facet of life. How do we prepare ourselves for something as inevitable as how we are perceived? Lets see; in the professional world, we strive for higher levels of education in order to exceed expectations and pursue perfection. In our social world, we seek people that we share an interest with in order to avoid being viewed as a social outcast, or as socially inept. Remember, these are things that we have done for ourselves in order to get what we want; this does not account for the actions of others.
Then we meet those other people; those people that try and mold us into what they want us to be. They're often persuasive because they show us the brighter side to each matter and all of the benefits to each decision made for us. These are the people that can single-handedly wash any and all hard work down the drain if their intentions are wrong. These people that come into our lives are often dealt with in a polarized manner. Either we accept these people whole-heartily and let them play an instrumental role in our lives, or we completely disregard any "advice" or suggestions these people send our way.
How do we overcome people's misperceptions of us? Honestly, there is nothing that I can say here to even point you in the right direction. The truth of the matter is if I knew how to change what people thought of me; I would - bottom line. Let's be real, there are a lot of people out there who think highly of me, and think of me as someone who could be a part of their life (and for that I am grateful). However, there are those other people that want me to think they have my best interest in mind, but they really don't. It's fine; the world needs balance, right? In my opinion, overcoming misperceptions is something that we shouldn't occupy ourselves with. We were put here for many reasons; before worrying about others, we have to worry about ourself.
So going back to my initial question; what is our purpose? From my empirical knowledge on this Earth, I've learned that the answer is whatever you want it to be. Yes, I understand; that answer sounds cliche and a bit corny, but think about it. If you are focused, determined, and your purpose is always in sight then what will stop you? Now if you tell yourself you are all of the aforementioned things, but aren't - where does that leave you? If you're a lemming that does everything that other people suggest...nicely put; you don't really stand a chance. Things are what you make them to be - bottom line.
I'll leave you all with a quote on reality...
"The people who say you are not facing reality actually mean that you are not facing their idea of reality. Reality is above all else a variable. With a firm enough commitment, you can sometimes create a reality which did not exist before."
~MARGARET HALSEY
Great read :)
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