To Thine Own Self Be True

Compromise is an awkward and often uncomfortable necessity for those who seek to live a harmonious life.

One of the great difficulties many people face as they make their way through life is encountering people whose beliefs and practices are at odds with their own. Stress and anxiety are the products of such encounters but stress and anxiety affect only the sufferer. As and of their own they contribute nothing of perceptible value. Disagreement brings distress and distress is self-destructive.

It takes an adjustment of opinion or an reduction in demand to find and identify an acceptable common ground…agreeing to disagree but retaining respect. The good news is that abandonment of belief and rejection of long-held standards is not required. Compromise is not capitulation.

Honest self-evaluation is the key. To be fully effective members of society it’s necessary to know what it is that we believe and why it is that we believe it. The most dangerous person is the one who has no opinion. Those who believe in nothing will fall for anything.

If we have a proper and complete understanding of our own true self then we will be able to mount a convincing defence of our beliefs and attitudes. Better still we’ll be able to identify flaws in our arguments and character and make the necessary changes.

So many of us spend an inordinate amount of time looking beyond ourselves, seeking fault and failure in others. It would be more constructive to spend at least some of that time looking inward, learning to know and, in knowing, learning to love the person that we are.

As individuals our lives would be far less troubled if we took the time to get to know who we are. Before we can hope to live with others we have to learn to live with ourselves.