Do You Give Your Opinion The Respect It Deserves?

We all want to be loved, admired, respected, and cared about. It’s a basic human need. This desire encourages communities and families. Being together in a group helps accomplish great deeds. Imagine if one person attempted to build a skyscraper alone, without any help from others. It would never be finish in one lifetime. By organizing a large group of individuals who are interested in arranging steel and concrete, this complicated task can be finished in a matter of a few months. What does this have to do with your opinion?

Before I encourage you to ignore other people’s opinions, I would like to point out that there is a reason that we’re sensitive to the opinions of others. It reminds us that fitting in and being accepted into a group helps the biggest of dreams manifest. Community living is healthy. It produces abundance and prosperity. A community is built up of individuals, though. If everyone was a construction worker, how would we eat? It takes a variety of personality types for a community to thrive.  The skyscraper analogy teaches us that there is a time and place for fitting in with the crowd. That doesn’t mean that you should go to work for a construction company, when actually your dream is to play music. Being able to recognize the difference between when other’s opinions matter, and when they don’t, can help build confidence in your own opinion.

If everyone in your family builds skyscrapers, you may feel the pressure to join them. But, what if your dream is to play classical music on the piano? What would these tough, muscular people think of you if they knew that you wanted soft, romantic music to flow from your hands? Let me ask one more question. Who’s to say that construction workers wouldn’t enjoy listening to a beautiful melody while they are building? More likely, they may need your relaxing music after a long, hard day at work. If you ignored your own opinions in order to fit in with the construction workers, you would miss out on living your dream. They would also miss out on experiencing your gifts. Your true purpose is revealed to you through desire. If you long to play music more than anything else, that is your purpose. Listen to that opinion. It’s the one that matters.

Now, that is my opinion. Does that make me right? No, not at all. An opinion is never a fact. It is never the truth.

• An opinion is a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty.
• An opinion is a personal view, attitude, or appraisal

Remember when you were a child and your parents told you to do something you weren’t interested in doing? Did you have a longing to simply do things the way you wanted to do them? No one could possibly know you better than yourself. Your desires are all your own. Your wants come from inside you – not from others. You know you! Let’s try to maintain that feeling. Forget how other people want you to build skyscrapers. You are here to play the piano. Let your own opinion matter above all else. Be your own boss in the sense that you make decisions for you. You are the only person who lives with yourself for every second of your life. In my experience, when people do what is best for themselves, everyone wins. Construction workers have relaxing music to listen to while they wind down after work. A pianist smiles because he is living his dream.