Quite a number of years ago, I learned a lesson about not always relying on other’s opinions.
At the time, I was starting a new job and one of the people I was going to be working with had a reputation as someone not easy to work with. A friend of mine, whose opinion I highly respected, described this person with some very unflattering language that I won’t repeat here.
So I started this new job, and of course my opinion of this other person was colored by what I had heard from others. I automatically decided I didn’t like him.
However, in just a short time my opinion changed. It turned out that this person was someone I really enjoyed working with.
He was friendly and generous and had a warm side that apparently others had overlooked. He was totally unlike the person that others had described to me.
What I learned was to listen to the opinion of others, but to rely on my own experience before forming an opinion.
We can learn a lot from listening to others, but we need to test what we hear before deciding if it works for us.
Even with what I write here, don’t automatically accept what I say without question. Test it for yourself and see if it makes sense. If it doesn’t work for you, feel free to disregard it.
Do the same thing with what you hear on the radio, see on TV, read in newspapers, and hear from politicians. Don’t blindly accept others opinions without checking to see if it makes sense for you and your life.
To your happiness!