Catch Your Judgment

Judging others is too easy.

You get to make up a story about someone else, and it feels good. It makes you feel superior. But judgment is an amateur move. Curiosity is the professional one.

Consider this story:

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A 24-year-old, looking out from a train window, shouted, "Dad, look, the trees are going behind!"

His dad smiled. A young couple nearby looked on with pity at what seemed like childish behavior.

Then he exclaimed again, "Dad, look, the clouds are running with us!"

The couple couldn't resist. They leaned over to the old man and said, "Why don't you take your son to a good doctor?"

The old man smiled and said, "I did. We are just coming from the hospital. My son was blind from birth. He just got his eyes today."

Every assumption the couple made was wrong, but we are all guilty of it. How often do you find yourself doing the same thing? If you're honest, more than you'd like to admit.

Here's what I want you to try today. Catch your judgment. The initial thought isn't the problem, that's just your brain doing what brains do. But the moment you act on it, say it out loud, or let it shape how you treat someone, you've wasted mental calories on something that's almost certainly wrong.

You don't have to be superhuman. Just catch the judgment and spend that energy somewhere it actually counts.

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Judgment is an amateur move. Curiosity is the professional one.