Guard your health and it will help you obtain and retain a saner, healthier outlook on life. It will also help you to be your natural, normal self. Too many of us like to look, to act and to appear important. We feel neglected when we are not the center of interest and at times will do most anything to draw the desired attention to ourselves.
How about you? How often do you brag and boast about the importance of your job, about your influential friends, about your past, about your activities in various groups or about other things that strike your fancy for the moment?
How often do you assume supercilious airs, convey the impression that you know all the answers, pretend you are too big to be bothered with petty things or make believe that money, as such, means nothing to you? How often do you seek recognition and would compromise yourself a dozen times, confidentially of course, to get a little publicity?
Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why you are so anxious to impress people? Psychologists say it is a form of anxiety and the basic reason for it lies in a feeling of inferiority. You want people to think that you are an important person. And so, you build the illusion around you that you have power, friends and influence. Yet, at the same time, anxiety stays with you. You are constantly afraid that someone might look behind your false front and see you for what you really are. . . . And, you begin to brag and boast a little bit more.
Titles, honors, badges of office, deference have little meaning to the truly "big" man. He is above simple pretensions and petty subterfuges. He does not have to play a part or make believe, and in most instances he is a simple man. As for the little fellow, he thrives on those things.
Many of us play a part, some of the time. We act one way at work and another at play. We may be kind and sweet at home but harsh and unyielding to those under us at work; we may be the life of the party at a social gathering and a surly, grumpy person at home; an overgenerous host when strangers are around but a penny-pincher in the bosom of our immediate family.
Of course, a certain amount of play-acting is often required-call it polish, propriety or company manners. We would like to tell the truth, to reveal our true feelings but we cannot do it for the moment and must be polite and friendly and solicitous. The danger lies in carrying pretense too far, in wearing the false front too long, in making believe too often. Then it becomes a form of escape and leads to trouble.
Dramatizing yourself too much, exaggerating every trivial incident, ascribing undue importance to petty things and overacting on the slightest provocation is nerve-wracking. Pretending that you are somebody else and making a poor job of it is to undermine self-confidence, lose your own identity and become a "nobody". Pretense and dramatics may gain you temporary sympathy or attention but they seldom last and usually leave a bad taste with all concerned.
Guard your health and be your natural self. Capitalize upon what you have and what you are. Be simple, friendly, pleasant. All of this will lighten your load, brighten your day and add to the joys, the beauty and the richness of your life.
If you are ready to open your heart and if you are willing to try, visit us...
http://www.fightyourfears.com
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