Here is some food for thought. We all have different life experiences. Everyone doesn’t see life through the same lens.
When you disparage others because they are different from you, if you think it isn’t okay for them to be the way they are and to think the way they think, it isn’t because there is something wrong with them. It is because you are not okay with yourself. You may think there is something wrong with you. The reality is that we judge others to the degree we judge ourselves. We criticize others to the extent we criticize ourselves. Different is wrong and bad for those who are other-dependent.
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, internationally renowned author and speaker says, “When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.”
Contrary to different being wrong or bad, there is another way in which being different is thought to be good by some people. When individuals think they are better than others because of their differences, their mantra is: “I am different because I am better than you.” In this case, being different is considered to be good by those who indulge in this type of thinking. They may think they are better than you because they have more money, more intelligence, more talent, more social status, or more of anything. They don’t need to be different just like you; they don’t even want to be like you, because they think they are better than you.
This is just a smoke screen to convince themselves and others that they are better than everyone else and it is okay to be “their kind of different.” This is actually another example of being dependent upon what others think. This individual is still trying to be different just like their chosen group of peers who see themselves as better than others.
Do you need to be more and have more than others in order to convince yourself that you are better than others? Do you believe that your “kind of different” makes you better than others?
