Do You Live Up to Other People’s Highest Impressions of You?

What sort of impression do the people closest to you have about you? You can tell by the things they say to and about you as well as how they treat you. For better or worse, we usually how the people in our lives picture us, right? Think about their highest opinions of you. Do you live up to them, or at least do all that you can to live up to their lofty impressions?

I have three daughters (Emily, Brittany, and Stephany) who have high impressions of their parents. They’re certain my husband knows everything and that there isn’t anything he couldn’t do. If he were to say, “I’m going to try to make the PGA Tour next year,” two would ask to caddy for him and one would want an introduction to Tiger Woods.

Smart girl.

As for me, my girls always tell their friends how “cool” I am, how fun I am to be around, how much I love life, what a perfect mother I am, how I’m always happy and positive, etc. No high expectations there, huh?! The problem is, I’m not always happy, I don’t always feel positive, I’m nowhere near perfect and while I do love life with every ounce of my being, I sometimes take exceptions with roads it chooses to take.

However, their impression of me really gives me something to live up to and I’m very thankful for it. When life takes those particular roads, I know I can’t stay down for long – because that’s not where my girls expect me to be. It’s then that I dig deep and pull myself back up to a higher place…. the place where they’ll be looking for me.

We all have those days where we are completely out of sorts. We can’t put our finger on it, but we’d just rather snarl than smile and given half a chance, we wouldn’t mind a few tears. I had one of them a few days ago. Nothing bad had happened, I felt fine, my Cardinals were back in full swing, my UK Wildcats just hired the best coach in the country… Everything was GOOD except for my mood.

When my youngest daughter came through, I immediately thought, “I’d better do something about the way I feel, pronto.” I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk and we did just that. The fresh air and the exercise made me feel like my old self almost immediately.

Think about the highest thoughts your friends and family have of you, then use them as goals to live up to. After all, aiming higher is what Self Improvement is all about.

This post was inspired by a comment left by Beth in another post. That’s what I love about your e-mails and comments, you inspire me!