Our fragile identities and our effort to correlate our feelings with our reactions have been a result of a dialog with a Psychology Doctor.
His focus is on morality and what we believe and what we choose to do, not as a result of the lack of morality but as a result of the belief systems we have been conditioned with.
The folks who are involved in the field of Human Resources, Sociology, and Psychology with credible education and experience have been answering many of my questions. My questions are responded to with complex questions that push my envelope of thought.
I’m over the moon with their patience while they share their writing that conveys their message based on their lessons learned. Listening to understand their lessons and how they came to that conclusion is exciting and adds to my energy.
It isn’t so much the title. It’s the attitude. Their attitude with their notoriety is complimentary. Meaning, they are helping me narrow down my career field of vision with a better understanding of my identity and what fascinates me.
We learn when we are having fun. Having fun with what we are learning leads to mastery. We do not have to do a thing because it is demanded of us for a task. I’m not a person that operates that way. I do not always have to be told what to do when I’m told to do it.
There’s a difference and there is a power with the knowledge that I can assess whether something is right or wrong. The duality of that is knowing my core values and revisiting them every year to figure out what has changed to modify my values with what I have learned.
Mistakes are a part of life. Lessons, the best and most memorable lessons stem from mistakes. A cohort exclaimed, “Failure is okay and fast fail is preferred so we can shift direction.” His declaration was profound to me. It has stuck itself into the cracks of my memory always reminding me that failure, indeed is okay despite those who desire to demand others to think about how wrong they are as they posture about how right they are.
I have learned that this is okay as well. They too, do not know what they do not know and that is their journey. That is theirs to own. It is not my place to try to change them through brute force that smashes their identity into smithereens leaving them feeling like an empty vessel of what their identity used to be. That choice, by my moral standards, is wrong.
Mother taught me that it is not my place to judge people and condemn them to hell. That behavior is in poor form and poor choice. “KNOW YOUR PLACE!” Isn’t it funny how we can interpret admonishments of our character? What did we learn? How can we shift that to learn something different? I can be a victim or I can be a warrior. The opinions of others are just that, an opinion. My responsibility is knowing how to gather that information and interpret that with critical thought to know the difference between what is my place and what is not.
Therefore, my place is to share my lessons but not to tell others what they should extrapolate from it. They own that journey. After all, what if I am wrong? A professor stated, “Question everybody and everything, question even me.” Acknowledged. Understood. That message is also embedded forever into my memory and it has value.
