Perspective
At work the other day, a five-year-old asked her mother, "Why is the old man here”? Later that day, an elderly lady addressed me as "You kids”.
Who is right? Both of them? Neither of them?
I guess the answer is that they are both right from their perspective. It's a factor we easily overlook when we listen to the advice of others or argue with ourselves.
So how do we go about "choosing right"?
We need to remind ourselves to look at the bigger picture and where we are in life right now. Easier said than done. We are so eager to find the answers to our questions that we often get tunnel vision.
Perhaps open-mindedness and logical reasoning need to be accompanied by another ingredient:
Emotion
Not through emotions like fear or anxiety. In those cases, it’s usually best to weather the storm before making big decisions. But we can benefit from the subtle feeling that lurks in the depths.
It's hard to put feelings into words, and when we try, we end up with very individual descriptions. But we have one thing in common - the ability to decide whether it's "good" or "bad" vibes.
It doesn't always work, and sometimes we get fooled by ourselves, but giving ourselves some time to reflect usually helps. And when something feels unclear, we can try to take a step back and look at it from a larger perspective.
What does your gut tell you?