Profiles Tell Us Nothing!

I seldom bother to look at profiles because it is often just a mixture of who people think they are and what they want other to believe.

On the other hand, what you commit in writing in the blogs, forums, etc reveals your soul. It strips you bare to the bone. And it tells us exactly who you are. Few people have a true perception of who they really are. Also, the terms we use in our profiles are relative to the culture we grew up in and the way we were brought up.

Some years ago a younger relative who studied psychology ask me to fill out a questionnaire, which was part of a task she had to complete. The questionnaire was in fact a survey of what I thought of the particular person. It had probing questions about her strong and weak points. I found the idea very interesting and made 20 copies of it, which I promptly distributed amongst my family, friends, colleagues, and their spouses. Some of the questionnaires went to their adult children to get a varied age spectrum.

Good grief, was I surprised with the diversity of the results? Things that I deemed as my strong points were only noticed by some and other ‘good things’ about me were not even mentioned. The very same applied to my bad points. I would not have recognized myself in some of those papers. Even husbands and wives had different opinions about me.

But the big surprise was something I paid no attention to but most the people had it listed. Some people admired me for that trait while others condemned me for it. I guess that it is needless to add that those who did not like it, had been at the wrong end of it at some stage or the other.

I am indebted to my young relative who asked me to help her with the task. She taught me that the way we look at ourselves is just one opinion and that other people do not necessarily view us in that light. Everybody has a different perception of us. And more importantly, what others think of us, weighs much heavier than what we imagine ourselves to be.


Have a great day. Not all Mondays are blue.