Judgement

No matter how much someone may deny it, we all partake in judgement. We often judge someone from the first time we see them. We make assumptions based on appearance, mannerisms, speech, etc., and anyone who denies that is lying to both you and themselves. I know for a fact that I partake in judgement quite often, but at the same time, I'm deathly afraid of the shoe being on the other foot. Whenever I first encounter someone, I get immediately anxious because my imagination runs wild trying to figure out what that person may be thinking of me. "Do they think I'm strange?", "Do they think I'm awkward?", "Do they think highly of me, or do they see me for all my flaws and shortcomings?" These are all the questions that run through my mind when I feel that I'm being judged. While it's often unpleasant to be on the receiving end of judgement, it is important because it builds character and shows which facets of our personality/character can be improved on. It's because of that that I try not to take judgement personally. I try to think of it not as me being on the hot seat, but instead as an opportunity to get an outside perspective of myself that can help me to improve. Another thing that's worth saying is that, more often than not, we aren't being judged nearly as hard as we think we are. A lot of the negative things we think people are thinking of us, are figments of our own imagination and perception of our own flaws. I think that it's more common that we are simply being hyper critical of ourselves than when others are actually analyzing every little thing that we do. That's not to say that we aren't ever being judged by others, sometimes we are. But all in all, it's best to not take the viewpoints of others as personal attacks, but as a source of perspective of what traits we can improve on.