The Importance of Empathy

Regardless of who you are, how old are you or even where you're from, your life can become infinitely better if you adopt the attitude of understanding people instead of judging them. Or rather, to try to understand them before you judge them. I believe such a thing is called empathy and if you naturally have it, I'd say you've already conquered 60% of the obstacles in becoming a good communicator.

For some people, like myself, who are not accustomed to the idea of viewing things from the perspective of others, it has been quite a journey. For many years, I've consistently attempted to place myself in the shoes of others and I have learned things that no book could have ever taught me. It's the kind of thing you need to do to understand it. Looking at things from the eyes of another person changes us. It teaches you that even if someone is the same age as you are or they come from the same ethnic group, there's a high possibility that they see the world very differently from you.

Every single interaction in my life has become better in unexpected ways thanks to me forcing myself to try seeing things in the perspective of others. I have found new ideas. See problems that were initially invisible to me. But most importantly, I have learnt how to understand people and in turn, I have learnt to appreciate them. The greatest benefit of empathy for me is that I can see people's justifications for their actions without them directly telling me. I can understand the why just by paying attention to the how.

If you think that your current interactions are unsatisfactory or you just can't seem to get people and they can't seem to get you, take a moment to stop being selfish. Stop seeing things from one perspective, your perspective. Look at all the things the other person has done, look at what might have made them do it, look at the environment that might have shaped them. Take a moment and just observe these things. More often than not, you will often find yourself concluding that if you were in their position, you would've done the same.

"You are not a rattlesnake because your parents weren't rattlesnakes." - Dale Carnegie

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