When you look at yourself in the mirror, you see a different image than the image that everyone else sees. Looking in the mirror is a good metaphor for the practice of viewing yourself honestly and without a filter. In order to see yourself the way others see you, and to see the way you project yourself within the world, you must look inside of your self and examine what is happening inwardly. You can look in the mirror and tell yourself that you are OK, but you may not be, and everyone else will notice.

Why it’s Difficult to Look Honestly Inward

The simple answer is that it is easier to ignore potential issues with oneself than it is to examine them and fix them. Looking honestly at yourself essentially means creating conflict within yourself that you then have to resolve. Most people avoid conflict at all costs. Because you can generally control whether you cause conflict within yourself, most people will avoid that. There is enough external conflict to keep everyone busy all of the time. However, there is a good reason to take an honest look at yourself, your beliefs, behaviors and practices: doing so will help you make changes that could help you avoid some future external conflict.

Looking Internally to Produce External Results

Everything you create or manifest in the world starts inside of you. To get the best results, you need to take a look at the way you create those results. Your behavior and attitude are external projections of internal thoughts. Together with your actions, behavior and attitude play a large part in the relative success of your results. One example of how behavior and attitude (originating inside of you) affect external results.

If you wear all of your emotions on your sleeve including happy, sad, confused, and angry, others will pick up on your mood. Even if you say positive things, if your demeanor indicates that you are mad about something, whether it has anything to do with the person you are talking with, the perception of the listener may be altered. The listener may become worried that you are mad at him or her, and will consequently be less productive.

If you tend to outwardly project every emotion that manifests inside of you, looking honestly at yourself and thinking about ways to control your emotions will produce better results. Those you manage will be more open and honest with you, and will be more likely to approach you with questions and engage you in discussions.

Honestly Looking at Your Beliefs, and Your Current life Direction

Do you feel like you are on a road to nowhere, or do you feel that you are speedily heading in the direction of your dreams? Either way, your personal beliefs drive your direction in life. In order to change your direction, or cope with changes in direction caused by external factors, you must honestly examine your belief system to see how it affects you.

Turning around on the road to nowhere. If you constantly feel that you are getting nowhere, look at your belief system. Do you wait for opportunities to come to you, or do you seek them out? Do you believe that your success is caused by you, or it depends on external factors? To make a u-turn if you are on the road to nowhere, you need to change your beliefs. To get somewhere, you must seek your own opportunities and believe in your own ability to create success. Those skills will serve you well to make U-turns in your life—planned or unplanned. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. That is a clichéd way of expressing that thought, but it is true. If you view lemons as a gift and make something wonderful with them, you will be happy. If you suck on sour lemons, you will wear a sour expression, and a sour face translates into sour insides! Lemonade is sweeter.

An Honest Assessment of Yourself Will Lead to a Positive Future

Understanding yourself, your actions and your beliefs will help you have a positive future. Your inward actions direct outward results. Positive attitude and positive actions attract other positive people and positive results. They are magnetic. You make the most difference in your own life when you steer the ship. The way you do that is by starting at your very core, and working outward to ensure that you project, one hundred percent, the attitude, the results and the emotions that you wish to receive in return.

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