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“So, I’m a tanked-up loser? Is that how you see me?” — Barney Gumble

We can go around proclaiming we are anything we want, we can even believe ourselves to be such things. While it’s important.. no.. it’s necessary to have a reference point for who you are but heres the deal, you are who people say you are.  It’s through the eyes of other people our being is filtered and made into what we are. People may see us as jerks and losers and none too bright, we know we’re not but why do they? Sure part of the blame is some inherent flaw in the one calling us a loser but we must look into ourselves and examine the actions which brought out this judgment.  After study we may find nothing wrong and that is alright in fact it’s most likely a good sign that we are being true to our internal yardstick. An unpopular man said that it was important to stay the course, yes he was talking about something else but under the surface the meaning was there. Even if he was unaware he was practicing what too many don’t. He was staying the course, he held certain core values that regardless of popularity he was unwilling to compromise. Today it’s so easy to give up core beliefs in the name of popularity, you might not even notice you’re doing it. Wanting to fit in is like a drug once accepted it’s all that more critical to stay accepted, the masses are fickle and will toss you aside like yesterday’s trash before you know what’s what. Another thing about the masses is they don’t care about what you’ve done before they want to know what you have for them now, what kind of shiny are you going to give them today.  The overlooked key to popularity is to be genuine to who you want to be, don’t let your conversations be just an ad for someone else’s latest craze or product. The truth is people want character not the made up reality TV kind but real personal stand up character. Plant your flag and state “these are my values, they are not for sale!” people will seek you out for it and the added bonus is they will stick around and help you define who you really are…