⚠️ DON’T THROW OUT THE BABY!!! ⚠️

️“What the devil are you talking about, Donald?!” ️

Let me explain!  For those who knew me a few years ago, I’m not the same person I was back then. I’ve grown A TON, had many personal transformations, and had many new experiences!

Just as we all get older, we’re never the exact same person we were the moment before. We’re 1 more second older. 1 more second alive. 1 more second existing. ⌛

And what we do with the time we have on this planet is our choice! 

For me, I like to spend time creating content for you all, like this post! My desire is to provide thoughtful posts, ones you can use long after you’ve read them. ️

If I can have at least 1 person be touched or be inspired by my posts to take action in their lives for the better, that’s all I ask! ️

️“But Donald! What were you talking about before, about babies?!” ️

Oh yes, the baby! Right!

Anyways, with this quick growth of mine has also came valuable lessons I’ve learned. One of these lessons I want to share with you all today. ️

I’m talking about: not throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

And since this is the internet where things can be misinterpreted or taken out of context, I want to clarify with you all here: ‘Throw out the baby with the bathwater’ is just a figure of speech. It is not meant to be taken literally, and there is no physical baby or bathwater!

️“So Donald, what does this phrase mean?” ️

So when you say to someone “Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater”, you are telling the other person not to get rid of the good with the bad. You are telling them within the bad there’s still some good that can be taken out of it.

Take the example of a broken car: just because a car is broken does not mean every part of the car is also broken too. There may still be some working parts in the car you can use in a working car instead.

⚠️ DON’T THROW OUT THE BABY!!! ⚠️

So why should we all “not throw out the baby with the bathwater”? Because in our society, we do it A LOT!

It’s the reason why there’s so much division among people. Because we’re unwilling to understand that someone’s political party, religion, or peer group does not 100% define them as a person, we throw out any possibility of getting to know them any further.

We close ourselves off to different perspectives, different ways of seeing the world, different ways of solving problems, and most importantly reminding ourselves we’re all human beings.

Just like the broken car, we wouldn’t automatically assume everything about another person was broken just because we didn’t like them, right?

…Or would we?

⚠️ DON’T THROW OUT THE BABY!!! ⚠️

I don’t say this to sound condescending. I’ve fallen into this trap before too! You’re not alone!

It’s easy for us to stay attached to our personal beliefs and not be open to others. Our beliefs give us a sense of control and order to our lives. Beliefs give us security. Beliefs provide the answers to life’s unanswered questions. Beliefs give us absolute truth where we don’t have absolutes.

Our beliefs are what gives us our identity. It’s completely understandable why people would feel hostility towards people who are not like themselves.

But at the root of that feeling, this refusal to understand, is simply fear.

In order for this to change:

• We need to be open to accepting the fact there are other people in world who have different perspectives than yourself.
• We need to be open to being ‘wrong’.
• We need to develop empathy towards others.
• We need to remember our beliefs are not our own. Think about it: Beliefs are opinions and viewpoints on life you have picked up over time in your life. You didn’t have them the moment you were born.
• We need to remind ourselves we’re all human beings on this planet.

Because when we dismiss someone and their beliefs, we don’t just “throw out the baby with the bathwater”. We throw out the human being with their beliefs. 

⚠️ DON’T THROW OUT THE BABY!!! ⚠️

So the next time you’re talking with another person:

• Remember we all come from different walks of life, and we all have reasons for believing what we believe.
• Empathize. Place yourself in the other person’s shoes. You may learn something new you didn’t know before.
• Seek to understand why the other person believes what they believe. Let me emphasize: this does NOT mean you have to agree with what they believe. It just means you understand why they believe what they do.

As I like to remind everyone, I’m only human too. I sometimes need these reminders myself. This is a lesson I continue to learn too!

But with these solutions in our minds, we all can make further progress towards working alongside our fellow neighbors. ️

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