A lot of people have role-models – people they respect and want to be like – but as far as I can tell I don’t have one. I have a variety of people I look up to in certain fields and I suppose from each one’s best features I create an imaginery role-model.
But this little thought is not about role-models, it’s about anti role-models – people you really don’t want to be like. Or perhaps anti role-traits.
There are certain people you are expected to respect because in the hierarchy of things you are lower than them, but this doesn’t mean they are necessarily role-models. But, if these people you respect do a stupid act, or somehow fail your expectations, you will quite often (most likely subconsciously) give them another chance. If they screw up again then it’s likely that you will have them as an anti role-model. They have (pretty much) proven themselves to be unworthy of your respect and rather than progressing in your thoughts, they get put in the I_don’t_want_to_be_like_that category.
Perhaps in an effort to not dismiss an entire person because of one flaw, I suppose I hand out more anti role-trait than anti role-model titles to people I know. And when handing them out it’s not usually for something they do that I see as wrong, but something they do that they feel is wrong and for some reason still do it. There’s nothing worse than failing yourself.
In life anti role-models are needed. You need to be able to see the comparisons between the role-models and the antis. If you don’t have the comparison then how do you know just how high to aim yourself and where your starting point is? You need to know what you don’t want to be in order to be what you do want to.