Watch Yourself

Watch yourself! Typically, these are used as words of caution. You’re doing something that you shouldn’t be doing. Stop it! In most scenarios, we unfortunately don’t have the advantage of being able to watch ourselves after the fact. Too see ourselves through the ever-objective lens of the camera or hear ourselves through the unforgiving ears of a microphone. To experience ourselves as others experiences us. We think and believe we know how we showed up, but the problem is that we often fail to see past our own bullshit. We make the assumption that how we perceived a given situation was accurate. Not only accurate, 100% accurate. We were right! What if before we went to sleep every night, we actually had to review footage of every daily interaction we had? Would we be better or worse as a result? Would we be quick to make excuses that validate our less flattering moments? Would we lose sleep over what we saw? Would it keep us up at night to see how our day actually transpired compared to how we felt it went? What if you had to watch this footage with your best friend, significant other, child or co-worker? What would they see? Chances are, we’re going to be our own worst critics. However, the process, regardless of how cringe-worthy it may be to watch yourself, offers incredibly valuable insight. Insight that can be transformative. “I will start doing more of this, and less of this.” Tangible evidence of how we can get better at being ourselves. So, “Watch Yourself” is, in reality, pretty amazing advice. Whatever you do, record it in some capacity. That feedback holds vital information to your self-improvement. More importantly, invite others to watch and/or listen too. Chances are your list of criticisms will far outnumber someone else’s critique, but you’ll likely naturally be aligned in areas that are realistically in need of improvement. It’s even better if they pick up on things you didn’t see or hear, because you now have gained valuable insight that helped expose one of your blind spots.