My friend, the purpose of this post is to simply demonstrate why your opinion sucks.
Don’t worry, though. You’re not alone.
My opinion sucks, too.
I actually don’t have anything against your opinion. What I would like to demonstrate is that all opinions suck.
Or, more precisely, I’d like to suggest that attaching to any opinion is unskillful and will result in less than optimal outcomes in both our personal and professional lives.
It’s Natural to Form Opinions
Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t have opinions. I’m not sure that would even be possible.
The formation of opinions is a very natural part of being human. When we perceive something through our senses, the brain naturally starts classifying what we perceive and putting it into categories.
It probably starts in the reptile brain with classifications like “threat or not a threat,” “food or not food,” or “potential mate or not a potential mate.”
And, before we know it, we add on some variation of, “I like this,” or “I don’t like this.”
There is no problem up to this point.
The Problem Is Attachment
The problems start when we attach to our opinions – when we become our opinions or allow our opinions to become a part of us.
There are telltale signs of when this happens.
One sign is that if someone shares an opinion contrary to our own, we’ll notice some type of emotional response in our bodies. We might feel anger and want to defend our opinion.
If we experience an emotion like anger when someone expresses an opinion contrary to ours, we immediately become less effective.
Our decision-making ability is diminished. People don’t want to be around us. And, we experience harmful physical consequences like the ones described in this article.
This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post. To continue reading, please click here.