Monday, November 29, 2021
Your reputation is a tough one to unpack, isn’t it? How could you ever know the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about you? That’s what a reputation is, it’s what others think of you. It’s not like you can pass out survey cards to everyone you know, and to compile data about yourself. The way you perceive your own reputation is a guessing game, but if you take a guess, you’ll probably get pretty close. How is that even possible? It’s sensing the difference between being defensive and being attentive.
If you’re trying to protect or to defend your reputation, you’re only protecting a thought about yourself. You can never truly understand how people perceive you anyway. The only thing you can do is to perceive how you communicate, how you express yourself. Are you defensive, or are you attentive?
An attentive person presents themselves deliberately, not spouting off, or acting with hostility, especially when hearing something false about themselves. Defending your positions, protecting your reputation, will only add heat to the moment, causing you to come across in a negative way. But delivering your words deliberately, speaking justly and thoughtfully will defuse even the hottest temperament. If you think you can improve your reputation by defending yourself, guess again. The only way your reputation will ever improve is if you improve how you speak, how you act, and how you react. In other words, pay attention to yourself when you speak and act! Do it thoughtfully, do it deliberately, and do it truthfully. Your reputation is likely to improve, but that will only be a byproduct of presenting a more pleasant you to the world. Be attentive, not defensive. You don’t know what you’re defending, anyway.