Friday Words of Wisdom - The End of Self Monitoring

It's Friday again, and I am feeling quite introspective. I have come to realize that there must be something about Fridays that does it for me. All these epiphanies seem to show up and I do some of my best writing on my other blogs on these days.

Anyway, I decided I would share some words of wisdom today. So here goes....

There are two types of people - those who self-monitor and those who don't. Here's what that means. Some people change their behavior according to the people they are around. Those people self-monitor. It might be slight changes, it doesn't have to be total changes in personality. It is a sort of alteration used to fit in better, although it is usually done on a very basic unconscious level.

On the other hand, there are those who don't change their behavior even one little slight bit. They do no self-monitor at all. Research has shown these people are happier than those of us (yes, even me in the past) that unconsciously "go with the crowd" in a matter of speaking. Society says we should act certain ways, so we try to fulfill those "obligations" the best way that we can.

So what's my point?

Everyone wears masks, right? There is not one person on this planet who doesn't have secrets and a feel a few things that we wouldn't say out loud to anyone. We hide behind a variety of masks: husband, church member, parent, co-worker. We do all the things that are expected of us - and that's not necessarily a bad thing to a certain degree. After all, someone has to bring home money and feed the kids.

But here's what I am getting at: Stop trying to behave in ways that are "acceptable" to other people. Be yourself and say, **** off to anyone who doesn't like it. (In your head, of course, I don't want you in a fight.) It's a lot easier than you probably think. Just give yourself permission not to care what other people think.

To quote John Rzeznik once again:

Nothing is real
It's all what you believe

No truer words have ever been spoken.

Come to think of it, most of my introspective moods probably come from listening to the Goo Goo Dolls. John Rzeznik is a great philosopher, you know.

That's enough babble for now. Peace out.