My view of myself may not be accurate

I am truly fascinated by the difference between how I view myself and how others see me. At one time I would have thought they were very similar, but increasingly I realize they are not. Two great examples of this:

The first is the image above. My son drew this on my whiteboard for me to find. It reads, “my dad is superman to me.” I have to be honest, I don’t feel like superman to my son. In fact, I feel like I’m failing him in so many ways. I’m not as patient with him as he needs for me to be. I’m also not as kind to him as I want to be lately. Of all of my kids, he is the one that I’m butting heads with the most at the moment, and in the midst of that struggle he found the time to see me as superman. That is humbling.

The second example is a conversation I had yesterday with an old friend. He told me that sometimes I’m hard to talk to on the phone and that the conversations don’t go very deep. I would have thought the opposite. I think I’m great to talk to. Apparently I’m wrong and have some work to do in the area of communication, getting past the surface level stuff.

If I’m honest with myself, I have to admit that my view of myself may not be entirely accurate. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s way off in a few areas, maybe more than I care to realize and admit. I’m ok with the difference. This is what drives me to examine myself. This is what drives me to want to become better. This is what drives me to be the best husband, dad, son, friend and leader I can be. This is one of the reasons I blog. I’m learning and growing and I’m glad you are on the journey with me. Thanks!

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