I’m not sure who it was who said “You’ll never learn anything new from yourself.” I’m not even sure that anyone said it. Somewhere though I picked up an idea that the sentence captures: most of our growth and learning comes from our interactions with others.
To get maximum benefit we have to be open to it. Therefore, approaching someone with a mindset which says “I know you (or your type), and there’s nothing you can tech me”, can be severely limiting. You can miss opportunities thinking that way.
Sometimes it’s a good idea to judge others, but when it hardens into a fixed attitude we can lose more than we realise.
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Barry, when is it good to judge others? What you may see on one day could be different on another day…we all have bad days. I work hard at not judging people – I really try to think of what’s behind a certain action. I can get myself in trouble in discussions over this because I actually try not to judge even the terrorists – because they are doing what they’ve been taught by folk who were taught the same thing. Yes, we have choices in what actions we take and I always have hope that folk will take make the right choice for them, but that doesn’t mean it will be the right choice for me. This is a very puzzling idea for me – because I don’t feel that I have the right to judge others, yet I’m against the actions some folk take. Can you give me any help with this puzzle? And as always, thanks for your insights into life!