As children, statements like “mind your own business,” labels of “stupid,” and having observations and questions laughed at, lead us to hide our natural curiosity. Without accurate information we try to figure things out anyhow. Our conclusions are usually erroneous. We decide we’re to blame for the bad things that happen. We decide we’re stupid because we don’t know how to do things. We feel different and ashamed. As grownups we try to hide our sense of incompetence by pretending we really do understand. Going into a situation in which we do not already know all the things we’re going to be expected to learn can be very frightening. The culture we live in reinforces this problem by continuously comparing us with each other.

[tags]self-improvement, personal growth[/tags]