People See The Choices You Make, Not The Options You Have

One of the most difficult things to comprehend, and practice, as a person invested in their personal development is perspective. Particularly as it relates to what you see in others compared to what you know about yourself. 

There are times where we get compliments or acknowledged, and feel conflicted by it because people “don’t know the full truth”. We look at other people who are succeeding at the highest levels and they make it look so easy, yet everything in our lives is a battle…

We spend every minute in our own minds and know every detail of what happened or could have happened, what we thought or considered, and what we did or didn’t do. Compare that to the limited insight we get from others where we can only observe what they do and hear what they say. 

The context you have about your life and choices is so different from the context you have about others. And understanding that our perspective is limited, we can know that what looks easy actually isn’t, and what looks obvious probably came with lots of careful consideration. For every success you have, you see all of the extra parts that went into creating it, or how it could have been even better, that others don’t. Everyone has their own version of the same happening in their minds but you can’t see it. 

It’s one of the reasons why you can’t accurately compare your life to others. There’s so much more than meets the eye. The successful business person may be deeply unhappy, have a bad marriage, or be estranged from their kids. Someone who looks so happy and adventurous on Instagram may be crippled by self doubt and insecurities.

So don’t discredit yourself, your success, and your happiness because it’s more complicated, or it’s not so straightforward. That’s how it is for everybody. Their version is theirs and yours is yours. That’s why self-awareness is such an important and fascinating pursuit. The more you seek to go deeper to understand the details of the context you’re in, the more at peace you’ll feel with where you’re at. At least that’s been my experience! 

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