The Storybook You vs The Real You

In My Imagination...

Have you ever done something that is quite the opposite of what you believed you would do? I have. I'm sure most people would have done something totally different to what they imagined. How many times would you have advised a friend when they needed some guidance, but failed to follow the same advice when you were in their shoes? We all say or believe that we are so and so, but often do the contrary. We say one thing, but we behave in a totally different manner when we are being put through the real test of life. Here are some random examples:

*You do a tag in your blog that requires you to answer the question 'What are the best qualities about you?'. And you say something like 'I'm very forgiving, I have a big heart etc'. Now imagine in real life you have a tiff with one of your mates. And now you can't seem to forgive or forget...you find yourself keeping that anger in you for months and months, vowing yourself never to speak to that person again, dismissing their presence and attemtps to patch up with you. Suddenly your so-called big heart is nowhere to be found. So what exactly are you doing now? The exact contrary of what you claimed yourself to be. *think about it, who you believe you are is not always who you are*


*You may claim you love your parents alot, but when your mum asks you how your day was, you say 'I'm tired mum' and you just go into your room, turn your PC on and chat with your net friends, while your mum sits alone outside and watches TV. If you really love someone, then you wouldn't take them for granted. So you said one thing about loving someone, but you are doing something totally different when it comes to acting upon those words. *careful, what you say is not what you always carry out*


*Let's say you are someone who hate being rejected and that you believe in treating everyone with respect. But imagine that you continuously reject a person for some reason. You think you are way too cool to associate this person and you disregard them intentionally...or you act as if they don't exist. So what are you doing now? Quite the opposite of how you want to be treated or what you claim your values are. *watch out, how you like to be treated is not how you always treat others*

*How about terrorists? They say they want freedom, independence etc etc. But when they are out on a deadly mission, they are robbing innocent people of that same freedom and their lives too. So they believe in one thing but do the contrary. *update your memory, what you want from life is not what you always give out to others*

*Imagine at some stage you believed that you are hopeless, or that you were not as great as some others were. But now you see those same people you thought so high of behaving in ways that you'd not have even imagined. After all, you're not as bad as you thought you were. Infact, you are way better than those very people that you so admired. *beware, what you see is not what you always get*

A Candy House...
I'm not saying that we should all aim at being Saints...we can't. We are human and we are prone to making mistakes, we are prone to saying one thing but sometimes doing a different thing altogether. But, what we have to keep in mind is that who we believe we are and who we really are, are 2 different things. It would be good if they're both the same thing, but only very few people are like that...only a handful of people in this world really stick to their words, values and beliefs when it comes to their actions too. And only a very few people admit it when they screw up. The rest are living in denial. Trust me I have come across enough people like that in my life to write this post in total confidence.


Paper Flowers...

The best person to ask who you really are in comparison to what you believe you are, is not yourself. Ask a friend you have judged, ask your family, ask a total stranger you just met, ask someone you hurt intentionally, go back to your diary or tag-posts and read what you wrote about yourself...all those beautiful things about you. Ask anyone but yourself. Cos we always believe we are clean but we are very quick to judge others. Sadly, what you prefer to be is not always what you are to others. It's great to have a set of values and claim that you follow those values in real, but if others around you don't see your actions matching your words, then it's high time to wake up to the real you. Living inside a Storybook can take it's toll on Reality some day in your life. btw this post is not just for the readers, it's also for me...yes I admit I have strayed and hurt people too, much to my surprise, but atleast I admit it. At the same time, I have come across people who have shocked me and have totally contradicted what they claimed to be. In a way it's a blessing to know who they really are, so that I don't look upto such people again or live in the false hope of them ever proving me wrong. The one kind of people I cannot stand are hypocrites. It also makes me realise I'm way better than some self-proclaimed saints, philosophers, professors and beauties who take others for a ride and live oblivious to the fact they are really fooling themselves.

Living The Story...

Do you practise what you preach? Do you treat others the way you wanted to be treated? You may believe you're at the mountain peak but the real you could be somewhere at the very bottom, lagging behind. It could also be the other way around...you may see yourself as someone way behind compared to others, but you could infact be someone right at the top and ahead of others. The Storybook You and the Real You need to be reconciled...then you'd know yourself well enough not to fool yourself. Who we really are does not live in our academic qualifications or our certificates or our job titles or our assets...who we really are live in those small gestures, those simple deeds and those things that we say and do to others in our day to day lives. Are you really who you believe you are?

Current Music: Imaginary by Evanescence