How Many Book Covers Have You Judged?

You've heard of the saying, "don't judge a book by its cover" haven't you? Today I had an eye opening experience with this. No, I did not judge anyone however, I was the object of the judging. It was sort of a humbling experience and I don't want the individual to feel bad in any way about revealing their first impression of me.

If nothing else, this should be a lesson for those judging as well as those being judged. In the words of Ricky Ricardo, "let me 'splain."

The individual who had "prejudged" me, at that point, had only observed me and had not gotten to know me yet. Nonetheless, this person "did not like" me from our conversation; they thought I was "up there" - you know, conceited. Of course we can laugh about it now. But what if you hold that person to your prejudged impression and never get to know them? Because of your personal bias, that person may hold the key to your goal or goals. If you were to survey (or recall) times when you have prejudged someone, how many of those times were you completely wrong? Look around us today. We see it all the time.

There is another side to this equation. For this individual to make that assumption about me I had to have been giving off some kid of "vibe" that caused them to think this way. This is why it is ever so important for us to be aware of how we "are" in the presence of other people. Even though you may never speak or interact with someone - you are "speaking to them." Do you know what you're saying every day without actually speaking?

If you are the deliverer of prejudged thoughts or actions, ask yourself where are those thoughts coming from. Are they based on fact or fiction? Do you know the person and not just know of them? If you are the recipient of prejudged thoughts or actions, ask yourself what "vibe" am I giving off to cause this. In either case, the key to avoiding a potentially bad situation is to not assume what you see or think without validating it. In other words, get to know the person first.

Prejudiced thoughts and/or actions can be a major blow to you reaching your goals if they are not held in check. Most relationship issues (student-teacher, parent-child, husband-wife, etc.) can, more often than not, be attributed to one party making an assumption about the other. So, how many book covers have you judged lately?

By the way I'm not conceited - just confident!