Still Battling for Recognition?

“There are some callings which gain universal esteem, while others more important are without credit. The former, pursued before the eyes of all, obtain the universal favour; the others, though they are rarer and more valuable, remain obscure and unperceived, honoured but never applauded.”

~Balthasar Gracian, Aphorism #67, Prefer Callings “En Evidence”.

Everyone craves recognition.

Here we analyse the topic of feelings of a lack of recognition. It is the remarkable truth that we’d often rather believe in, and want to covet, another person’s truth as it pertains “fitted” to our lives—via the way of making, at times, foolish comparisons—than deal with a truth closer to home i.e. our own recognition.

In this our envy grows. Everyone is susceptible.

Recognition is best understood in terms of actual evidence—to the almost absolute disregard of feelings, for we’ll all feel inadequately compensated, and at times, quite often. The truth is we’re probably just feeling inadequate—mostly at levels below our conscious awareness.

‘Facilitated’ Recognition

There is an art that some draw upon, yet others leave by the wayside. This art is simply the facilitation of our own self-recognition. This is an easy thing to learn and do and it can help enormously to prevent the disruptions we’ll undergo due to myriad form of discouragement from a lack of notice.

This is simply about taking more notice of the things we’re involved in, reflecting over our goals, what we’re learning, and our results compared to our goals. It also pays to ensure our goals are personally relevant and achievable. It’s choosing to be a little more introspective. There’s nothing quite like taking the time to do this.

When we do this we remain buoyant in that we’re using what we can control—our own feedback, recognition and wellbeing—to limit what we cannot control, which is the perceptions of others as far as we’re personally concerned.

Summary

We have to admit that we will probably only at times be recognised to the level we feel we deserve. Indeed, sometimes we’ll get flatly no recognition. This is the nature of life. It’s the same for everyone, although it often feels like we’re the only ones being unfairly segregated for the cold shoulder.

We cannot do anything about how others perceive our contributions or intent.

What we can do something about, however, is to stave off any distractible feelings we’ll have as a result of a lack of recognition. This we can most effectively do by way of recognising ourselves.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.