..like opinions...everyone's got some

We live in a world where, for most of us, the way we live or lives is only based on the perceptions of others. How our actions and the result of those actions are perceived is very important to many people. The other day I was wondering why it is so important for many of us to have people, even those we don't know, think favorably of what we do, say and think.

For the most part I think people have an innate need to be accepted. This need for acceptance is what causes most people to have such an invested interested in what others think of them. Personally, I don't care what people who don't know me think of my actions. But to say I don't care what anyone thinks of me is a fallacy. Anyone who says that is a liar. There is someone in your life that you want to be perceived favorably by; be it your parents, grandparents, best friends, mentor, future boss, wife, husband, children, etc. Even if it is one person, there is someone. It's a natural thing for people not to want to move through this life alone, so by caring what others think is a bit of a manifestation of that desire to be accepted and understood.

I also think that the care of how we are perceived is a built in system of checks and balances. I think that if people moved through this life without a care in the world, there would be in a sense a lack of consciousness. Think about it, what would you or could you do if you knew there was no one looking, no one caring, about what you did. Knowing that how you and your actions would be perceived to the police, the judges, the juries, even GOD didn't matter, what could you do? In a sense this fear of judgment or misjudgment by our peers is what keeps control of chaos.

Ultimately, I think the main reason why perception is important to so many is because when we leave this life that's all that's left of us. How people will remember us and what we did will be based solely on their perceptions of our actions and who we are. So as we go through out our daily lives we are conscious of the fact that everything we do will be judged. Hopefully those who look at us will see our actions for their true intentions and us as who we are. It is up to each individual how much we will let others perceptions dictate how we live our lives.