The Washington Post / Robin Stern, Marc Brackett 13:22 JST, June 12, 2024 Exercising good judgment is essential to our physical and mental health, but being judgmental isn’t. Asking a friend to walk you home when it’s late at night or not entering a mosh pit at a concert for your own safety are examples of good judgment. But making safe judgment calls is not the same as being judgmental – when we fixate on faults and criticism.
Being judgmental is making someone feel bad about their choice of clothing or haircut. It’s about publicly disapproving a colleague’s perspective or contribution with a tone of superiority. There are ways to maintain the integrity of our convictions without being judgmental of others.
And we can learn to deal with others who are judgmental. * * Judgment is helpful; being judgmental is not Judgment is a natural and necessary component of decision-making. You see the line of cars in morning rush hour and judge that there will not be enough time to stop for coffee.
You see a job posting and judge that it is a promising opportunity to explore. Judgments also keep us constant with our values, beliefs and needs. Exercising judgment moves into being judgmental when we embrace an attitude of moral superiority, and even contempt, when we profess to know better or, worse, to be better.
We can be judgmental out of envy, fear, anger or some combination of these. It is both a way to avoid dealing with our own insecurities and a critique of another person .
