Judging Books. Or People...

Generally speaking, I'd like to think I'm a pretty non-judgmental person.  Unless it's one of the Real Housewives, a new flavor of M&Ms or some ridiculous fool posting a video of themselves on the internet that should only end up being ridiculed on Tosh.O (see post below ;) ), and rightfully so, I'd like to think of my mind as a judgment-free zone for people!  No need to worry about what I'm going to think of you, I see failure as a learning opportunity and success as a stepping stone towards something even better.  Yada yada yada. :)

Yes ladies, I judge you :)  As does everyone else in America for how insanely...bright (hahahaha!!) you all are :)

But in all seriousness, I really do try to keep an open mind about all things, including people.  This weekend, however, I realized that I'm not quite so awesome at that gig as I thought I was, and in the process I ended up learning a really good lesson about not judging people simply by their outward appearance.  In keeping with the purpose of this blog, trying to improve some aspect of my life every day so I don't just end up years down the road in the same position I started in, and continuing on the topics of mental and emotional health (things I think everyone can work on improving) I just wanted to put in a little plug for self-analyzation and looking for ways in which we might not be as perfect at something as we think we are.

Simple Case Study:  I went to a bbq this weekend (love these!!) where I didn't know anyone except those I came with.  After visually scanning the crowd I initially found it difficult to find someone to go chat with outside of the group I'd arrived with because no one seemed to look like me.  Isn't it funny how we can be comfortable with some complete strangers more than others, simply because they look more like us than others might??  Anyways, I finally grew a proverbial pair and got out of my bubble and started talking to people.

Um, can I just say we had some great conversations that night?!  In keeping with one of my favorite things about Boston, I had more refreshingly intellectual conversations that night than I've had in a while, and it was really great to experience that, as well as have total strangers teach me a lesson or two about judging.

So even when you might think you're totally great at something, there's no way you're perfect at it, and sometimes it just takes being thrown a curve ball for you to realize where your weaknesses are.  So while I might not judge people for what they say, I guess I didn't realize that sometimes I was judging them before they'd even had a chance to say anything at all.

Don't I seem great?  Haha

Anyways, one way or another, if you think you're not judgmental too, chances are there's some way you are.  :)  The trick is to figure out how and fix it.  And remember, it's not enough recognize your flaw, you have to actually change it if you want to change yourself. :)