Let’s be honest… we all think we’re the good guy.
We don’t say it out loud, of course. But deep down, we carry this gentle pride, this quiet assumption that we’re kind. Honest. Humble. Patient. That if people truly understood us, they would agree: “You’re really such a good person.”
But is that who you really are?
Or is that just the story you’ve told yourself for so long that it feels true?
There’s a version of you that lives in your head.
That version apologizes first.
Forgives quickly.
Checks on people.
Says thank you.
Takes correction with grace.
Loves without conditions.
That version is emotionally intelligent, mature, gentle with words, powerful in presence… the person you’ve imagined yourself to be.
But then there’s the version the world interacts with.
The version that’s defensive when corrected.
That is quick to cut people off.
That always needs to be right.
That talks down at people.
That “forgives” but never forgets.
That masks pride with “confidence.”
We rarely compare the two.
Because self-righteousness is sneaky.
It doesn’t shout, it whispers.
It builds castles in our heads.
And before long, we’ve crowned ourselves the hero in everyone’s story, even when we’re the villain in a few.
You may be a hero to one person,
A safe place, a bright light in a tunnel…
But to another, you may be the one whose silence wounded,
Whose absence felt like rejection,
Whose words cut deep even though you “didn’t mean it.”
Both may be true.
And until we hold up the mirror, the real mirror, not the one in our fantasies, we will keep falling in love with an image of ourselves that no one else ever gets to meet.
We must stop idolising who we want to be and start becoming it.
Little by little.
With humility.
With feedback.
With accountability.
With God.
Because the goal is not just to believe we’re good… it’s to become good.
In action.
In attitude.
In truth.
