To further complicate matters, other factors, such as fear and insecurity, can also interfere with our judgment. Insecurity often lies at the heart of our tendency to criticize others. Criticism can act as a buffer between what we see in others and what we are afraid to see in ourselves. Critical judgment gives us a way to set ourselves apart from that which we fear.

In most cases, our judgment is flawed because we are overlooking a crucial step in the evaluation process – validating our assumptions. Since it’s human nature to pay more attention to things that support our world-view, while ignoring or discounting evidence that opposes it, few of us are motivated to validate our assumptions. How often do you take the time to challenge your assumptions before you act? Even if some of your underlying beliefs may have been true at one time, do you continually test them to see if they are still true?

Since we live in a world with endless opportunities to judge, it is not realistic to expect that we can simply abandon all of our judgments. It is possible, however, to be more mindful of the judgments that we do make. We need to be willing to routinely clean the “dirt” off of our lenses. Instead of jumping to conclusions based on a first impression, we can make a serious effort to know the facts. Rather than simply projecting our thoughts and feelings onto someone else, we can attempt to really “see” where the other person is coming from. If we are making critical judgments about others, we can take a closer look at ourselves.

It is important to remember that your judgments say far more about you than they do about anyone else. Dr. Wayne Dyer put it best when he said, “When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.”

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