In my head, I thought I was doing one thing. Once I wrote down what I did and reflected on it, I realized if I saw someone else do what I did, I would think something very different from what I thought I was doing.

This is because when I think about what I do, I remember the intent of each individual action, so of course that’s why the actions make sense to me–I did them. When others look at me, they don’t know my intent, so they try to figure out what I meant. Others view all my actions holistically to decide what to think. So their perception and judgment can drastically differ from my intent if I’m not actively conscious of how I am presenting myself overall.