Activity

1.  Prudence, being careful consideration of consequences, can be used as an opportunity to honor my silences.  What I mean by this is that, often in a conversation, I don’t know what to say and am afraid of saying the wrong thing.  This feeling of dread arises that if I say nothing or do nothing other than not in agreement, I appear stupid to the other person.  I can use this silence as a chance to forgive any judgments and then simply ask the other person to tell me more or to clarify their point.  And I can be prudent in my listening and attempts to learn.  2.  Fairness.  This can apply to being fair to myself in my attempts to learn new things.  I would be fair to a child attempting to learn something new and having to try again and again.  Why would I not apply that same fairness to myself.  It could also apply during an argument in the way I listen to the other persons point of view to understand their position while also honoring that my voice deserves to be heard.  3. Honesty.  This might be applicable to being truthful with myself and others when I’m in over my head and am ignorant about something that I don’t know.  It might mean being vulnerable and sharing the truth that I’m simply not skilled or knowledgeable in a certain area for whatever reason, without making myself wrong.  4.  Judgment.  This could mean sound judgment.  Is it sound judgment for me to judge myself negatively and diminish my self worth for not knowing something I feel I should know, or is sound judgment more reflective of me forgiving myself and realize that I know exactly what I need to know to be complete and whole as I am and that I am capable of learning what I need to learn to meet my goals.  It could also refer to using sound judgment when it comes to not having an all or nothing approach to learning as in “I still won’t know everything there is to no about cars even if I do learn to change a carburetor.  It’s too much to learn so why bother.”  5.  Perspective.  Again here, my previous point about all or nothing thinking can apply.  Reframe that to reflect that life is for learning and we were born to learn and grow.  Start somewhere and just never stop.  And never make what you don’t know or do know mean anything about you.  I could also use perspective to reframe failure as being feedback for learning.