Judging people around us on their looks, status, community, gender, ethnicity, or race comes naturally to most human beings. Being non-judgmental is the biggest challenge in life. During childhood, we revere some people, we fear some people, and we trust some explicitly. Whatever these figures tell us or feed us with information, we believe it. This is how we grow up with deep-rooted biases in the form of complexes, fears, values, and sometimes ethics.
Even after growing up to be adults, despite realising that most of our complexes, fears, inhibitions, and sometimes beliefs were baseless, we still go on reacting or responding to them as we have been training our minds to do ever since we were kids.
As individuals, we are so distracted by the external factors of a person that we lose focus on their internal characteristics or traits. There are circumstances and evidence that point towards a person’s bad behaviour or action, but does it make the other person worthy of our condemnation or insult? But being non-judgmental is really difficult.
Why is it important to be non-judgmental? Do we also get affected by our biases and beliefs? In my opinion and experience, when we judge others, we are limiting ourselves too. If we are trying to set benchmarks or standards for others, those would be applicable to us too. Then how do we deal with this situation? We might argue or give logic that life has not been fair to me in certain terms, and so could be the case with the person we are judging on some basis. Acknowledging, accepting, and appreciating others helps us grow as people. We can draw inspiration in this manner, whereas judgement can result in criticism or denunciation and will only invoke negative feelings in us.
To be able to see the good in others and be able to adapt it for our own growth is an exemplary trait in good human beings who can be great leaders one day. But dear readers, this is your life and your choices; who am I to judge?
Indu Bhargava has almost 23 years of professional experience in the field of training, counseling, education, journalism, and corporate communications.