Indirect reflections

What people think or say about you is not a direct reflection of who you are.

What they’re telling you is not a direct reflection of what you’ve done.

The results you’re getting, good or bad, are not a direct reflection of your actions.

What you see might be an indirect reflection, maybe a wild distortion.

Don’t ignore feedback. Instead, recognize it’s incompleteness. Seek understanding. Synthesize.

Remember when _____ said you were too _____ or not _____ enough? They couldn’t see you clearly. They didn’t truly know you. What they said did not reflect you directly because they could not view you impartially.

It was an incomplete view of you altered by who they were. For better or not.

Opinions often say as much about the speaker as the subject matter.

Even the mirror can only reflect what it sees. And it’s not the mirror’s fault. It can’t see inside of you.

There’s no such thing as a direct reflection of a human being.

So what?

What if we thought of our reflections like abstract art?

Trying to understand the story behind the artwork. Seeing the core, ignoring the artifacts. Looking for patterns and similarities in an artist’s collection to better understand both.

How would that change us?

We would want more feedback from better sources before we made big decisions.

We would react less to criticism and respond more to counsel.

We would seek insight. Not agreement. Not approval.

Reflect on that for a moment.