For a long time, whenever I saw something being done in a way that I didn't quite understand my first reaction was to criticize it. I would immediately assume that whoever had set the thing up that way was incompetent and hadn't thought things through carefully.
For example, a while ago I was driving through a construction zone on the highway and they had taken away a lane about a mile before the area the actual construction was taking place which as causing traffic to back up. I thought to myself, "Whoever put those cones there, put them way too far away, that's so stupid!". I automatically assumed that they hadn't thought about the effects of closing the lane where the did. The problem is, they most definitely had thought about it! Whoever had put the cones there and whoever had told them to do it certainly had thought about what would happen if they closed the lane that far before the construction, it's their job to think about that sort of thing. They also most likely had a good reason for doing things the way they did, a reason that wasn't clear to me, an outsider who didn't have all the facts. I didn't know what the goal of the construction was, I didn't know if they were planning on doing something where they closed the lane, I didn't know a lot of things! Yet despite this lack of understanding as to what the construction workers were doing, I just assumed that they were doing things wrong! How arrogant is that?
When I realized how arrogant and wrong my attitude towards situations that I didn't understand had been I decided that there had to be a better way of thinking. I decided then let confusion trigger curiosity, rather than criticism.
Now, whenever I see something that I don't understand I question it with curiosity instead of criticize it. Instead of assuming incompetence, I assume competence and try to understand the thought process behind the action.
Isn't this a better way to live? Instead of assuming the worst, assume the best! See the good in people and believe that everyone is doing their best and working hard, I sure want people to do that for me and I'm sure you do to. By giving people the benefit of the doubt when we don't understand what they've done we open ourselves up to learning and understanding.
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