When No One is Looking

If you want to know who you really are, what you’re really like, then there’s an easy litmus test:

How do you act when no one is looking?

… or a slightly modified version is:

How do you act when your son, daughter or spouse is looking?

Having the mental awareness to ask yourself these questions is first step to finding your purpose in life.  It requires courage.

Why courage? Because you won’t like what you see.

It also assumes that you care to do the right thing.  If you don’t, then you can stop reading.

Everything you do should be placed under this level of scrutiny.  If you care, you’ll start today.  Whether you realize it or not, you are continually tested.

Here are some of my daily tests, both minor and major:

• I’m walking on the sidewalk, and I see a piece of trash on the ground.  Do I pick it up, or walk by it?

Action:  Pick it up and throw it away.

• I paid for something with a $10 bill, but I’m given change for a $20.  Do I notify the cashier?

Action:  Let them know they accidentally gave me change for a $20.

• I had a nice lunch in the city, but I could not finish everything.  I take the leftovers to eat later.  On my walk back to the office, I see a homeless person rummaging through a garbage can, but they don’t see me.  Do I give them the leftovers?

Action:  Walk up to them, and ask if they’d like the food.  Tell them I just packed up the warm leftovers from my lunch.

• I’m tempted by a phishing e-mail to visit a website that has sexual overtones.  I’m on my personal computer at home, and my family is not around.  There’s a picture of a beautiful woman with a link.  Do I click on it?

Action:  Do not click on it and flag the sender as spam.

• While traveling on business and out to dinner with male colleagues and clients, there is talk about going to a gentlemen’s club afterwards.  I feel considerable pressure to go.  Do I join them?

Action:  Tell them I’d prefer not to go and will see them in tomorrow morning’s meeting.

I think you get the gist.  Asking yourself the litmus questions will reveal your true character.  If you don’t like what you see, then you can do something about it.

If you’ve read this far, then you must care enough to want to do the right thing.  Now that you’re aware of it, just do it.  Make it a habit.