52/365 Stay grounded, reflect on your first impulse!
Summer sky, Crete 2022
(To my kids)
“Rule 6 - Set your house in perfect order before you criticise the world.”
I know the controversy around Dr Peterson, but I take his work with a grain of salt and that allows me to learn from his wisdom.
Agreeing with anyone on everything would make you spineless, while disagreeing because you’ve decided to label someone as being spiteful is just as bad. When offences are thrown easily it’s because people are overwhelmed by the situation and have no smarter comeback.
Take what you need, what inspires you, but what do you do with the things you don’t agree with? If it’s not the battle of your life then think about it this way:
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
Exactly what I was not doing and this is me still learning!
Kids, if you understand this message earlier than your mum, you will save so much energy!
Listening to people you don’t agree with, without intent to judge, is liberating and it is also essential for a healthy debate.
I want to point out something, you don’t even agree with yourself entirely! If you go back in time a couple of years or even months, I am sure you wouldn’t agree with some of the things you used to do/say/believe in. Would you label your past self as an idiot, for example? You might, but I am sure you didn’t appreciate it if others did it.
This is you - extending the courtesy to others, because you have learned from your own experience that views can change, you can change, you can be patient, you can be calm, you can keep a soft spoken voice and you can truly open up and listen…. It keeps you grounded, humble and allows you to grow.
Kids, listening is an art of vital importance, it’s the gift the keeps on giving! I just wish someone would have told me this much earlier in my life, but would have I listened?
Will you understand this in advance or is it necessary for a certain amount of time to elapse for this to sink in?
“Our values are imperfect and incomplete, and to assume that they are perfect and complete is to put us in a dangerously dogmatic mindset that breeds entitlement and avoids responsibility. The only way to solve our problems is to first admit that our actions and beliefs up to this point have been wrong and are not working.
This openness to being wrong must exist for any real change or growth to take place.”
You got this!