Viewing yourself and your situations in the 3rd person

[Ewan]

Have you ever watched a film in which the protagonist continues to make the wrong decisions about things and suffers as a result? You know why he/she is making these choices, and you empathise with them, but you desperately wish they would make the right choice - the choice that is so obviously right to anyone watching the film. Okay, so you might be getting a bit over involved in this movie, but the point that I want to make is that we can often be blind to the realities of our situation by our emotions and our refusal to accept certain factors.

By considering what you'd think about yourself (and the situation you're in) if you were someone else (might need to read that twice..) you can try to get a more objective and balanced perspective of things. Also asking other people what they think you should do has a lot of value - although it is vital to be independant and not overly influenced by the people around you, if you don't listen to and fairly consider advice you're given then you clearly aren't very wise!

Disagree? Agree? Discuss if you wish :)

[The Dutch Nick]

Very good, I totally agree.

It are not just the protagonists, antagonists as well. The series Heroes portrays this pretty good, the main villain Sylar is a perfect example and it's especially portrayed well in the third season.

[Paladin]

I disagree, to often people look at other's behavior and think they are making mistakes because they assume they want the same things out of life as they do.

If they took time to realize who that person was, and what they wanted out of life their actions might not seem like mistakes at all.

[The Dutch Nick]

Viewing yourself and your situations in the 3rd person- seems like a good one tbh.

[Paladin]

Not saying it isn't, but I think people spend so much time looking at others in the second person that they confuse it with looking at others in the third person.

[Andrew]

I try to look at myself in the third person most of time. I think it's good to do and consider what others advise. Although I think too much of this can be a bad thing because you won't be able to yourself and you would worry too much about what others think.

[Ewan]

I agree, worrying about what other people think is definitely the wrong way to go in my books. However, what I am suggesting in my original post is intended to be more along the lines of.. what would you think of yourself if you met yourself? What others think is of little importance as there will always be those who disagree with you and/or dislike you but what YOU think is very important indeed. Maybe I've wandered off topic a little but I think it's relevant.

[Andrew]

oh sorry. haha my comprehension skills are horrid. I always have trouble understanding things.

[Maxim Ustinin]

Very thoughtful, but the only problem with this is that other people don't know exactly what you are dealing with, well anyway two heads are better than one.

[Daniel Cronin]

Nice article, very up-lifting read :)