How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? – Matthew 7:4

us first

It’s so easy to point the finger at someone else. Why is that? What makes us so blinded to our own foibles and short-comings? Why do we become so full of self that we can’t see the myriad ways we need to change?

life principles

24th Dale Carnegie Principle: Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.

Here’s a story from the book:

"Like many engineers, I have not been noted for my excellent English or spelling. For years I have kept a little black thumb – index book for words I had trouble spelling. When it became apparent that merely pointing out the errors was not going to cause my secretary to do more proofreading and dictionary work, I resolved to take another approach. When the next letter came to my attention that had errors in it, I sat down with the typist and said:
" ‘Somehow this word doesn’t look right. It’s one of the words I always have had trouble with. That’s the reason I started this spelling book of mine. [I opened the book to the appropriate page.] Yes, here it is. I’m very conscious of my spelling now because people do judge us by our letters and misspellings make us look less professional.
"I don’t know whether she copied my system or not, but since that conversation, her frequency of spelling errors has been significantly reduced."

Daily Affirmation: Today I fix my own mistakes before anyone else’s!

Recommendation: How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie