Tag: Criticism

It’s only hard if we make it so

Posted on by philipdodson

Every day for 2,136 days, well 2,137 today, I have opened the ‘new post’ tab and I have been faced with a blank screen and until today, I have written something and published it.

“So what!’ I hear you say. The point isn’t the number of days, the point is that some days I have written immediately what I feel and sense, it flows and it’s not for me to judge whether it is any good or not, as that is completely subjective and in fact, it is only the mind that makes it either good or bad. Job done, hit the ‘publish’ button and move on.

Some days, the screen stays blank and then the mind starts, and the thinking starts, then the criticism, the doubt, the sabotage. The longer it goes, the harder it becomes to start and often I end up getting distracted, or actually deliberately going onto something else to avoid the showing up and doing today’s blog.

The thing is, always when we think the doing gets harder. When we allow the feelings flow from within and get started straight away then we enjoy the doing now.

Things are only hard if we make it so. Today, I allowed my mind to make this hard.

Pointing the finger at others and prejudice

Posted on by philipdodson

Ask yourself, do you go a day not judging another person for whatever it is? Do you walk down the street and label people based on nothing but our own prejudices, perhaps just for what they wear? Do you see or hear about a famous person, or someone you’ve never met, and pass a judgement on them? Do you hear second hand stories about a person and criticise them? Do you judge others, for whatever reason?

You are not alone, most humans are conditioned and habitually label and judge, mainly based on nothing but our preconceived opinions. It is a habit, we are taught it.

What if we challenged ourselves to stop judging or criticising others, perhaps initially, just for a day? What if we completed a day and tried another? Slowly, step by step unlearning our conditioning, perhaps we could then influence others by being an example for them to follow. What if we stopped blaming others? What if we choose to be accountable for our judgements?

Over time we could start to eliminate prejudice and far more effectively than any zealous shaming of other people’s choices, ones that if we are all honest, we make all the time. It’s funny how we can excuse our own judgements as valid and truthful, yet see others as unfair.

None of us are born with any prejudices, we are taught them and conditioned to have them. In order to reverse the conditioning, we need to be the individual who changes, who leads by example, who is prepared to be brave enough to be different. It does not happen by doing the very thing that criticism and judgement causes by criticising and judging others.

Do not judge others, inspire others by example, by stopping judgement, by stopping criticism, by letting go of our own prejudices.

It is by example we change not by pointing the finger at others and shaming them.