"I am not who you think I am; I am not who I think I am; I am who I think you think I am."

Amazing quote from American sociologist Charles Horton Cooley: "I am not who you think I am; I am not who I think I am; I am who I think you think I am."

Since reading it last weekend, I've been thinking about how many of our reactions and behaviors are because we're trying to be who we think you think we are. 

A person wearing a mask can't see the mask.

How many of our behaviors are motivated by trying to protect the mask we are wearing? (Being a "good father", a "good husband", a "good mom", a "good partner"; and not even as how we define those things, but as how we think other people define them?)

I wrote in my notebook that I want to live, this year, with "needs-based radical honesty" towards myself. Radical honesty because I want to really listen to myself; and needs-based because I want to really listen to what my true needs are. 

I hope this will result in acting more authentically -- out of needs-based radical honesty, and not fear of abandonment, or rejection, or failure.