Growing up, we are always told not to judge too quickly. We are advised to try new foods, experience new cultures, and above all, be open to new people. Yet, achieving such a feat of amiable equality towards all aspects of life is much easier said than done.
I’ve never been one to go out of my way to get to know someone. Put me in a room with complete strangers, and I’ll usually wait to be approached.
I’ve often wondered how others could surround themselves so quickly among a sea of strangers. Where did their audacity to openly expose their opinions to complete strangers come from?
To me, waiting to see if similar perspectives were reciprocated had always been the foundation to establishing a relationship. I had thought that working relationships should always be built upon the basis of commonality.
Similar people would never judge each other, and I guess somewhere deep down, I had always held back because I was deathly afraid of being judged.
I recently attended an international leadership conference for DECA students. At the conference, I had to sit through two days of workshops with random strangers from geographic locations I would probably never have the chance to visit.
While the idea of meeting new people wasn’t intimidating, it seemed a hassle to work in attempts at establishing relationships with people that I would never see again.
So, this is where I explain how I went against my gut, opened myself to meeting new people, and made some friends.
I guess long story short, what I realized is that commonality likely has nothing to do with successful greetings. It may play its role in long-term relationships, but creating quick acquaintances goes along the lines of something we all learned in physics. You get as much out of a relationship as you put in.
There is no need in analyzing what the other party will think. Nor is it necessary to evaluate how to present yourself in a mold to accommodate theirs. Â Let go of the mindset that everyone judges, or simply let go of the mindset of caring. The chance of rejection is a fair one to pay for the price of experience.
