The Courage to Be You

Being Judged

It happens to all of us. The dis-empowering, exhausting judgment by others about everything in our lives. Isn't it an awful feeling knowing you are being judged? Even if the results are good, it's still consumes so much of our energy.

Why do we let judgment be meaningful? We all want to be "somebody." We want to measure up and feel good about ourselves. We want to know we count to the judging person. We want to be enough. Sometimes being judged is just part of the job, contest, or event. We can learn to live with that.

Unsolicited and unwanted judgment is what I'm talking about. The cruelest of all. And,,, you do it too. We all do. Remember these helpful judgment shielding tools:

1. It's more about the person doing the judging than it is about you. It's their opinion sandwiched in all their problems, past, and "rules of life."
2. Who gave them the right or authority to judge us? It's not their job.
3. It is a sin for a good reason. It destroys.
4. The less we judge, the less we feel the pain of judgment.

Blurred Vision

Does your vision about life need glasses? Mine sure does. A Teleclass I participated in yesterday, with author Lou Cassara, alerted me, again, to my blurred vision of life and living.

I learned most of us concentrate on what we don't want. My mind picture is walking with my head down through life, trying not to stumble over another one of my faults. Look up, Brad! Put on some glasses to correct the blurred vision of looking down. Look to the future and concentrate on what I do want.

Correct our vision, visualize what we want, and replace thinking about what we don't want. Ahhhh, doesn't it feel good?

Comparison Mania

Comparison is life. Comparing is how we are judged, graded, disciplined, praised, promoted, and demoted. We become experts at doing it to ourselves too. It's everywhere. It's crazy! And.... it's unhealthy thinking - like lard for our minds.

Each of us is totally unique. No one else has ever been or will be exactly like you or me. Got that? I mean do you "really believe" it in your heart? Few of us do or we wouldn't be comparison maniacs.

How we are progressing according to our unique individual gifts, talents, and personality is the only sensible comparison. Comparison if foolishness. Think about it. Let's reduce our stress and become more fully alive by living comparison free.

Turn Off the JUDGE

We judge everything; weather, sports, spouse, neighbors, kids, church, work, and of course especially ourselves. The BIG Judge in us is our opinion machine and its always running. Always. Of course our opinions are important to us because they are right > aren't they? After all, that's what we believe and know, therefore it must be right.

But,,,,, those annoying people in our lives think the same way. Their opinions are just as right and true to them. Here's the part I hate - if we grew up like they did our opinions would be just like theirs. Oh, not me! Yep, it's true. What to do?

Turn off our opinion machine. The one that we allow to control us. It clouds our vision, pads our ego, uses valuable energy, and it's just an opinion. It's right only from our point of view. And we are the only one in the world with that exact view. Let's push our character and love of life to the next higher level and DUMP THE JUDGE by replacing it with understanding.