Our actionable reality is shaped not by some external mechanism, by some system working constantly and identically for all the people participating in the game, but by our beliefs.

I'm sure you heard this many times: "your beliefs are shaping your reality" and you probably put it in the "cheap internet quotes that may be somehow useful during intense hangovers or extreme boring Saturdays" drawer, and then just forgot about it.

And yet, your reality is indeed shaped by your beliefs, wether you're believing (pun intended) it or not.

Let me explain.

If all you have in your room right now is a hammer, the only way to make sense of that room would be to treat everything else as nails. There's simply no other way.

The hammer is defined and created as a nail hitting device, so if you have nothing else than a hammer, then everything else should be a nail.

Otherwise the world will simply stop making any sense.

Do you follow? Yes? Good, let's move on.

If you believe people are intrinsically bad, then the only way to make sense of your world would be to protect yourself as much as possible from this potential that you're seeing around you.

But, and here's where it gets interesting, there is no intrinsic way to define people as being fundamentally bad. The concept of "bad" doesn't even exist outside a "thinking device", as your brain. "Bad" or "good" are circumstantial. What's good for somebody may be bad for somebody else. Some people may eat bread and enjoy it, while some people who suffer from celiac disease, if they eat the same slice of bread, will have a gluten generated allergy (and may even die).

So, is it safe to say that people who suffer from celiac disease believe gluten is bad and that's what it causes their problems? Not really. They can't control that process in their metabolism, which simply can't assimilate gluten.

But is it safe to say that people are different, and there is no "fool proof", always working, "identical for everybody" reality. This thing that we call reality is an individual function of our own abilities to make sense of the world.

I think is it safe to say that reality is the collection of all the "nails" we're creating once we understand the nature of our "hammers".

So, if we understand we're suffering from celiac disease, our reality will be completely different from the reality of people who don't suffer from it. What's good for them will be toxic for us. We have different types of hammers.

Ok, ok, I hear you: "so what's the actual thing that you're saying here? How can we actually benefit from this philosophical mumbo-jumbo, which is not only difficult to grasp, but it's also delivered on a Saturday?".

Well, I guess I'm saying that before we hit anyone else with our own "hammer" we should just try to understand what are their "hammers". Before jumping to conclusions, before judging, before putting things, people, events, activities in tiny littles boxes, we should stop and try to understand that our "boxes" are working in our reality.

The reality of the person in front of us may be completely, fundamentally and irreversibly different from ours.

So, before putting labels on anybody, try to take a few deep breathes, maybe count to 5, and do your best to understand what the "hammers" of the person in front of you are, and make sure that, for that person, you're not just another nail.

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Previous posts in the challenge:

• 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day One: All Ultramarathons Start With Just One Small Step
• 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Two: How Much Garbage Do You Carry With You?
• 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Three: Pushing Things To Happen Versus Letting Them Happen "Through" You
• 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Four: The Rain In Spain Stays Mainly On The Plain
• 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Five: Books, Coffee And The Smell Of A Gentle Autumn
• 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Six: Revisiting The Harry Potter Trees In Turia
• 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Seven: Sand Castles
• 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Eight: Be Careful Of New Beginnings
• 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Nine: Tuesday's Free Writing
• 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Ten: The Power And Toxicity Of Lists
• 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Eleven: Unblocking Writer's Block - A Primer
• 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Twelve: Riding The Wave Of Change

Steem on!

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I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.

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