Do you ever think about the way that other people see you? I do... because I realize that other people don't always see me the way that I am. Sometimes people jump to conclusions based on limited or faulty information. Sometimes people see what they want to see or see what they assume they are going to see. Most people have many layers and are not very transparent, so seeing them as they actually are is very difficult. I often think that I am very transparent and I have been told that I have a very expressive face that makes it difficult to hide what I am feeling, but that doesn't make it any easier for people to understand the way I think.
There is a poem by Scottish author Robert Burns that I love, and seeing as I am distantly related to him (on my father's mother's side), I can quote him: "Oh that God the gift He would give us - To see ourselves as others see us." That makes a lot of sense to me. I think in some ways it would hurt to know how other people feel about us, but in general, I think it would be very helpful to understand the way that other people see me. It would help me to see where I do well and on what issues I still need to work.
It seems to me that the most difficult thing to understand about someone else is their intentions. I think often people who do not know me, or don't know me well, mistake my intentions and misinterpret what I mean by what I do or say. I don't always realize when something has been misinterpreted, though, especially when the person doesn't say anything to me about it. One thing that really bothers me is when someone comes back to me later and tells me that I said something that I know I never said - Meaning they probably misinterpreted something I said, but since it wasn't addressed at the time, I don't know what I did say that upset them because they thought I said something else. It is very frustrating!
