#self-perception

#self-perception

Looking back on my own decades in life-student, waiter, pilot, FBI agent, graduate student, author, speaker-I can honestly say I've felt like an imposter at nearly every stage. From my first solo flight in a Cessna 152 at 17 to my first arrest of human traffickers in the Sonoran Desert, miles from any help, I often wondered, Do I belong here? Am I ready? Even as I rose through the ranks, I sometimes asked myself: Did I earn this, or am I fooling everyone?

The wisdom here isn't about self-deprecation, but rather embracing what Davis et al. (2011) refer to as the "just right view of the self." When we clearly understand both our strengths and weaknesses, we gain a better understanding of the value we bring to our environment as well as where we need additional support. In theory, when we recognize this, neither flattery nor insult should have the power to distort our self-worth.

Individuals who are less attractive tend to overestimate their level of attractiveness, while more attractive individuals generally underestimate theirs, creating a discrepancy between self-perception and observer ratings.

Eleanor emphasizes that carefully concealing intelligence for the sake of politeness can actually be patronizing, while revealing it authentically does not assert hierarchy.

The sense that we are a solid entity, an unchanging entity that exists someplace in our body and takes ownership of our body, and even ownership of our brain rather than being identical to our brain, that is where the illusion lies.

Meaning-making often leads individuals to negative interpretations of their experiences, especially in the context of sexual desire discrepancies, creating unnecessary suffering and confusion.

That's how severely I don't like being the center of attention. That's all it comes back to. I don't want to be the focus of anything.

We are the media's 'dumbest' major. A viral TikTok asked college students this question, and communications was the most common answer.

The story we tell ourselves about who we are is often mistaken for the objective truth, affecting our perception of ourselves and others.

It can be a bummer of a thought. But it's also liberating. That time you fell on your butt in public? That dumb comment you made at dinner last week? Nobody’s thinking about it.