Can someone else's observation impact your decision making

Okay, I definitely was not this big at any point of my life. 

Gym is a big part of my life. 

I weighed 240 pounds 8 years ago and I am 6 foot 1 inches tall. I worked out daily. I am not going to get into why staying in good shape is good for your health, or my diet and workout routines, although I will write about it in a later post.

In this post I want to write about the observation other people make about me. My reaction to that observation, and how others are able to notice more about me than myself thus making me change my perception about myself.

Do you ever notice how some people may call you skinny, out of shape, fat, or they say you look great, and never seen you look so good before.

How does this make you feel? Ill tell you how it makes me feel. It brings a conscious awareness to my physique. I do notice a short term burst of inspiration to either continue on the path I been following or to change things up.

Why only a short burst? Because outside influence will never last long term. I've said this before, if you want to change it must happen for reasons only that come from within you.

It is true other people tend to notice more about you than you do about yourself. It is because your perception is skewed about yourself. You are bias about yourself because there is not a day that goes by that you don't look at your physique. 

This also applies to knowledge. When someone points out how much knowledge you have, you become flattered, but until that moment you don't realize any difference in yourself. Like the time I was told I had a great radio personality. I would have never thought so myself even after the experience. It certainly boosts your confidence up.

So how does this bring about change after hearing someone critique me. Well I have been called fat than skinny now for the last few years. I have always been in shape, in fact I inspired my friends to get into good physical shape when I was in my "prime". What changed? Well diet certainly has, and that is 70 percent of the battle to staying in good physical shape. My workout routine has changed, or lack of. My belief of being as big as I got has changed.

Yesterday I ran into someone I haven't seen for 9 years. The first comment was "you look so skinny now". I wasn't upset or annoyed by his comment, however that did influence me to eat a big meal 2 nights in a row now. Will I continue on this path? No. Why? Because of my awareness to this pattern.

That's all it takes is not letting your subconscious override your conscious thoughts. Many of us would continue on this self destructing path, not even realizing why or how it started. Be aware of yourself and your surroundings. Great, but long and tedious book is How To Train A Wild Elephant has many exercises on how to be mindful. Any books on monks and meditation will also give you a new perspective on how to stay aware. 

Lastly I want to point out that if someone else's comment about you makes your confidence drop or rise, then how would your comment to someone else make them feel. There are people who do not know how to be mindful and can have a long term consequence. Choose your comments sensibly.

To be continued....