Change Your Life | Rock the World

Every now and then I make the mistake of watching some of the news on TV, and I always have to ask myself afterwards why I bothered to. Not because I don’t think it’s important to know what’s going on in the world, but because they do such a poor job of showing it to us.

They seem to go out of their way to sensationalize everything rather than just giving you the news. I guess it’s good for ratings, but you end up with stories that start with things like, “Is so-and-so’s political career over?” They’ve basically made the judgment before giving you the story, and – god forbid – allowing you to decide for yourself.

So it got me to thinking. Have you ever noticed how often people – not just news anchors – do that? How easy it is for some people to pre-judge and dislike someone or something based on absolutely nothing whatsoever? I see it happen a lot. And I think it has a lot to do with that whole “If you’re not with us, you’re against us” mentality that’s so easy for us humans to fall into.

Some people hate almost instantly. For example, when meeting a new person, they’re skeptical about them right away and even rude at times based on nothing more than the person’s appearance or accent or whatever. It usually isn’t until after some time spent getting to know that person that they come to realize that there’s no reason to hate them.

And I’m not even talking about racism or other forms of prejudice, although those are also good examples. I’m mainly talking about this natural jealousy that we all seem to have, but some of us allow to overwhelm our rationality, and form our opinions for us.

But living like that is basically living with a lot of negativity. And what’s that good for, except making you feel like crap?

Simply put, it isn’t very fair to anyone to form your opinion before you know what you’re talking about. I’ve written before about how so many people don’t care about facts, as long as they can bluster loud enough, and that fits here, but I’m not necessarily talking about not having the facts as much as I’m talking about being harshly judgmental.

And the judgment is everywhere. You see it in on the internet all the time in forums and such. You hear it from political pundits (although I think they’re faking it). You hear it from angry neighbors when someone new moves into the neighborhood. You hear it from fans of certain TV shows or movie franchises with regard to new episodes or sequels. You hear it from sports fans with regard to opposing teams or players.

And it gets to be a little ridiculous. I know people who only ever complain about the movies they see or the music they listen to, as if nothing will ever make them happy. They go in already sure that they’re not going to like it, and so they don’t. They basically never enjoy anything.

But music and movies are small potatoes by comparison. While they’re at it, they don’t bother to enjoy anyone else’s company. Which means that no one enjoys their company, either. So they have no friends and no good times. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Now most people aren’t that extreme, but a lot of us have done some pre-judging at some point. And when we do, we’ve failed in many ways. First of all, we’ve started from a point of anger, which is very destructive. But we’ve also failed to learn anything about the subject of our anger, and therefore about ourselves. And that means that we’ve also failed to grow and improve ourselves.

Instead, we’ve regressed and become more stupid, or rather, uneducated.

Look at it this way, you wouldn’t want to be judged like that would you? Do unto others, my friend. Do unto others.

As a related side note, a friend of mine once tried to give me a hard time by telling me that I’m missing the part of my brain that makes me hate people. But I preferred to take that as a compliment, even though it isn’t actually true. I suppose it’s more true now than it was many years ago. There was a time when I definitely had the hate in me, and I said harsh things about people who weren’t even there to defend themselves.

And when I psychoanalyze myself I think that it was really the result of me not liking myself very much at the time, and being jealous of anyone who was more successful than me in whatever it was that they did. But then I’m no expert. I do know that I was pretty miserable then and not much fun to be around. Luckily I was able to change that for the most part, and live a much more positive and successful life.

Now, I’m not saying you have to think everything is always great and wonderful at all times. There will be things that you don’t like and don’t agree with. But I am saying that it’s best to know more about that thing before you make your judgment.

You’ll find it’s much more positive and satisfying. And you’ll live happier. Try it out some time. You’ll see what I mean.

Related posts:

1. Their Negativity is Draining You
2. Yes, They Will Criticize You
3. There’s No Reason to Get So Offended
4. Drop That Negative Attitude
5. Who Cares if You Make a Fool of Yourself?