By Harry Petsanis and Donna McCance
Objectivity
When you are being objective, your perception (how you look at things) is not influenced by your personal beliefs, opinions, feelings, or biases. Objectivity is basing your viewpoint on facts. Subjectivity focuses on your personal interpretation.
Most people confuse self-awareness with the need for being subjective, when actually, it should be the opposite. They will tell you they’re objective, when in reality, they’re often subjective. They look at everything from their point of view, perspective, and often from the position of being the prey.
Self-awareness involves the ability to interpret yourself objectively when determining if your actions align with who you truly are. That means identifying and eliminating any false honesty that you develop about yourself.
Objectivity allows you to look at life from a prism of honesty so you can develop true self awareness through self reflection. It’s a prism that very few people live in or have ever even entertained living in.
Self-deception stems from the habit of people looking at life from the perspective of what someone has done to them, seldom from the perspective of what they have done to someone else and what they’re doing to themselves.
Self Deception
People talk about being victimized, but never talk about taking advantage of someone else.
People talk about being disrespected, but never mention the disrespect that they dish out.
People talk about being wronged and how they’ve been taken advantage of, but seldom mention the times they’ve wronged others and taken advantage of them.
People talk about situations and scenarios where life has been unfair to them, but never mention the times when life provided them opportunities they haven’t earned or deserved.
False honesty originates from the ego as a way to mask insecurity. The two hardest things for most people to acknowledge is that they’re wrong, and that they need to change. If people spent one one thousandth of the time reflecting on their shortcomings and improving their lives that they do on pointing out the shortcomings in the lives of others, there wouldn’t be a person walking the planet today with one issue.
We don’t need to listen to anyone to be objective about ourselves. All we need to do is reflect, be honest, and ask ourselves if we really want to grow and improve. If you acknowledge that you truly want to grow and improve, there is no involvement needed with anyone else. If you cannot acknowledge that you need to grow and improve, then you can right away mark yourself down as one of the eight billion people on the planet who aren’t objective.
Being objective means focusing only on yourself with an honest, open mind.
People want to critique and judge other people, but not have them do it to them. People don’t want feedback, they want to vent and point out flaws of others as a diversion from fixing themselves. Oftentimes what they point out as flaws in others are actually strengths that they’re jealous of and insecure about, so they try to make others look bad so they can feel good about themselves.
Only focusing on the things you do well does not lead to growth. People don’t want to prioritize their strengths and weaknesses to improve themselves. They focus on their strengths and what comes easily, instead of prioritizing their weaknesses and flaws.
You want to focus on the negative so you become a complete human being, instead of only accentuating the positive. The best way to be objective is to be honest, create balance, and prioritize.
For every strength, you must acknowledge a weakness.
For every positive there must be a negative.
For everything you do well, you have to acknowledge something you do poorly.
For every character trait you admire, acknowledge something that needs improving.
Objectivity leads to a continuous road of self-improvement
Journaling, or writing daily, will help you to identify your thoughts so you can acknowledge what is causing you to be dishonest with yourself. It can help you to identify areas you need to improve so you can take ownership of your life and take the necessary steps toward creating balance. Recognize what is holding you back, and start moving forward by creating changes to better yourself.
And remember…
About the Authors
Harry Petsanis is a philosopher of human nature, mindset specialist, and lifelong fitness and wellness specialist. He is a writer and author, with three published books: “The Truth is A Lie,” “The Logical Path To Life,” and "Knowing Me from A to Z, A Child's Mindset," which he co-authored with Donna McCance, M.Ed.. Harry has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism. He has an intense passion for psychology and the human condition.
Donna McCance, M.Ed. is a business administrator, writer, author, licensed teacher and principal/vice principal with over 20 years experience teaching in elementary education and educational leadership. She has a Masters in Education, Masters in Human Services Management, Bachelors in Business Administration and Associates in Business Administration.
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The Truth is A Lie" and "The Logical Path To Life"
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"Knowing Me From A to Z, A Child's Mindset"