100 Business Days Out: Day 93 - YOU ARE WHO YOU ARE...(#8 Lesson)

...WHEN NO ONE ELSE IS LOOKING. It is true, you are who you are when no one else is looking. I knew this going into the 100 Business Days Out, but I did not comprehend it as fully as I know it now. What I know now, after this time of no one else looking is that there is a "me" that becomes the default for the things I will do and not do when left to my own time, demands and constraints. I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago who is a recruiter and he says that he sees a lot of executives who go to take time off and they end up in a bad place with bad behaviors, etc. I guess I can see that happening to people too as their default mode would be that when no one is looking. For me, I have found that when no one is looking I have come back to the basics: spirituality, relationships, physical conditioning, and doing my best within those three areas. It's not really true that I never have anyone looking, as there is family and friends and they each set their own level of accountability with me, but when I remove all others (work and outside influences) I find a life baseline that is more me than not. What I have also found to be true is when I remove these other "eyes" that I am driven more on fundamental principles of human nature. For example, I have found that bad habits are easy to establish and hard to break and good habits are hard to establish and easy to break. That is why, when all is said and done, I need others to be looking. I need others; family , friends, and yes, the outside influences to help me be accountable and be stronger than what I would be without them. I think of just the simple things that I do for myself that are good. I am a runner. I like to run and when I don't, I get irritable and don't feel good about myself. So, I will run, with or without others watching. But, to run a little further, push myself a little harder and add a stronger base for the future, I need other influences to push me. Signing up for a race and then letting others know I am going to do it helps me get pushed to train harder and complete the race as best I can. I can take this philosophy into my spiritual and relationship categories of my life as well. So, I have learned that I am who I am, regardless, but to think that life can be lived in a cocoon and still become the best I can be, is a fallacy. I need to have others watching to be the best I can be.