This video comes from my recent article: Compassion Supersedes the Need to Be Right

We stand at a pivotal point in human history; when the world needs acceptance and unconditional love more than anything else, we’re caught in the perverse us versus them mindset.

This time isn’t easy for anybody. We’re all doing our best with what we know, but often it can feel like being “right” is more important than finding the truth. While we should be able to openly discuss all options, concerns, and perspectives of this pandemic to seek the truth, we’re too often pitted against each other.

To find the truth, we must each individually admit that we don’t have the answer. Hopefully, we’ve learned a great deal from this pandemic already.

But there’s so much left to be done if we don’t want to fall back into our old ways. It will start with us as individuals — how we treat each other, how we inspire each other, and how we love each other through any adversity.

Topics explored include:

– A lesson on admitting ignorance from the Greek philosopher Socrates

– What it means to have a conversation of mutual exploration, from Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life

– A discussion between Jay Shetty and Will Smith on Shetty’s podcast On Purpose, where they explain how assuming we’re right is the central problem regarding conflict in any conversation or relationship.

– How Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith explore a new religious text every year

How exciting could it be to believe that the other person in any relationship or any conversation can teach us something about ourselves?

We are all just students of life seeking a way to be seen, heard, and loved. We are incomplete; every human being has had a myriad of complex experiences and histories. We barely know who we are ourselves. But we can learn. We can grow.

We can find common ground in the most combative of situations. But it takes wanting to learn by admitting that we, ourselves, are perfectly incomplete. With this mindset, we can only move forward together.