I was reminded yesterday about one of those lessons that comes with age:

The older you get, the more likely you are to realize that you know less than you thought you knew when you were a teenager.

With experience and perspective comes the wisdom that people have all sorts of reasons, backgrounds, and experience that play into their perceptions of events.

When you look at everyone through your own filters, a lot of what you see doesn’t make sense, or you misinterpret what they’re doing because you only consider why you would do it that way.

But so often people witness the same event or take part in the same conversation, and walk away with a vastly different experience.

Only communication and trust can solve this. You have to be able to discuss your intentions, and what you thought you were bringing to the conversation, and trust that the other person will tell you what they were bringing.

If you can have that conversation and dissect the event, you will have a much better chance at building trust and understanding. And you might just learn something.