Being objective with yourself -Is it so Hard!

[Secret-Silhouettes 3385]

Why is it so hard to look at your own body in an objective way?

 

Most people always apply a certain standard when their look in the mirror.

This standard is influenced by the media. But I don't think this fact can fully explain our behavior. Even without the media telling us to loose weight or be ultra-slim, we would still create standards for ourselves. We would use the mental image of a woman or man we once saw at the beach and turn it into our comparison standard.

 

I guess it's a person's way of expressing him- or herself. It's in our nature to be ambitious. And it's our unconscious way of improving our self, because we hardly ever choose an unwanted and unhealthy lifestyle as our goal.

 

It's an ongoing spiral, though. People have plastic surgery, get a body part fixed, build up muscle mass, or loose body fat... but only very few people can see and accept their improved selves afterwards.

 

It's not right to blame everything on the media. Individuals usually want to belong to a crowd of other people. It looks like nature has given us the burden of constantly being unsatisfied as a way to improve ourselves.

[Phaedrus 209521]

It's hard to look at anything related to yourself in an objective way.

 

Anecdotal example, from memory: I recall reading somewhere that 90% of people consider themselves to be better-than-average drivers. This says almost nothing about the way anyone in particular drives, and a lot about the fact that we have different ideas of "better".

 

A similar but opposite thing happens when we look in the mirror; most of us are just inherently dissatisfied with what we've got. It's a shame, but I think it's an inevitable part of being human. And I have to say, when I've met people who genuinely did think they were shining examples of perfection, I've tended to think that they were assholes. Narcissism is obnoxious.

[andflemcol 3975]

We are almost always our own worst critics. If somebody is not a critic of themselves regardless of whether they were blessed with good looks and good smarts or not, I always admire them because they are comfortable with who they are. If they try to be something more, than who they are, they are usually assholes.

 

Just my two cents.