Belief versus Fact
You can stop laughing now. If ever there was a battle in the human mind, it’s over what is belief and what is fact. You have likely heard the saying, “Feelings aren’t facts.” Well, beliefs aren’t facts necessarily either.
I might believe someone is making me miserable, but the fact is more likely I’ve either put myself in a bad situation or I’m making too much of something. Beliefs are just that: Beliefs. So many things can contribute to how vehemently we “believe” beliefs are facts. It’s a human trait that can really make us and the world at large mean and ornery, because frankly, not everyone else believes our beliefs.
That’s why one of the most critical parts of recovery is to be involved in a program that puts principles over personalities. If you’ve ever been involved in an enterprise where personalities are put over principles, you know that there are many people who will bring a big box of crazy to the table. They will fight to the death to prove to you their belief is a fact. They will run you down if you get in the way of proving their belief is a fact.
I once worked for an organization where the personalities were big and kept growing bigger – the principles shrank in importance because those personalities took up all the space. It was one big dysfunctional nightmare by the time I said, “Enough. Time to work with people who are healthy.”
Just imagine a world where everyone held their beliefs dear but didn’t impose them on everyone else? A world where people didn’t turn red in the face and go nuts if you didn’t agree with them? A world where live and let live were deeply held principles? Sound nice?
Well, we don’t live in the whole world, but we do live in our microcosms, and I for one can practice this in my daily life. I can work hard to accept that we will not always have the same beliefs.
I believe (it’s not a fact, I’ll admit it) that the world is better when we treat others as we’d like to be treated – because no one has to feel belittled, attacked, or threatened.
