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J is for ‘Judgement’

6:08:00 pm



Today’s letter for the AtoZ Blogging Challenge is ‘J’ for my theme ‘A to Z of Effectiveness’. You can read more about my theme here. I’m also participating in the NaBloPoMo for April.

Source
The dictionary defines ‘judgement’ as: the ability to make considered decisions or come to sensible conclusions. It’s a simple enough word, but one that has been a little on the dark side, thanks to many people who reach conclusions without adequate consideration!!
Basically, having good judgement is a life skill, and one that all parents of teenagers pray for! In ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, Stephen Covey talks about judgement in both the positive and negative sense.

In the first instance, he talks about how he tried to get his son to clean up the yard, without being nagged or forced to do so. He tried this by transferring the ownership of the task to the boy, making him his own boss and the judge of his own work. While initially, the feeling that you don’t have anyone breathing over your shoulder is liberating, you soon realize that self-judgement is a difficult task!! It’s actually quite a responsibility, but once you’ve mastered it, there’s nothing like it! Like the author of the quote in the picture says, “You can develop good judgement as you do the muscles of your body - by judicious, daily exercise”.

In the second instance, Mr. Covey mentions an incident on the New York subway where some kids were creating a ruckus and disturbing fellow passengers, while their father just sat there, not making an effort to control them. As expected, everyone threw him dirty looks, and finally Mr. Covey couldn’t stand it any more and talked to him about it. It turned out that the man’s wife had just died and the bereaved family was just returning from hospital. Needless to say, the other passengers’ judgement couldn’t have been farther from the truth. This is the problem with wrong judgement.

It is easy to be judgemental of others, but extremely hard to judge yourself! So, try to practice developing good judgement and you’ll soon find that your effectiveness improves and you also gain more respect in the eyes of others. As Stephen Covey says in his book, ‘Be a light, not a judge’!


Do you consider yourself a person of good judgement?

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2 comments

  1. Liked the two stories you shared. We often make judgement on limited knowledge/information. If only we'd take time to truly understand!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Shilpa! And when it comes to judging ourselves, we always hesitate!

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