“He who cannot put his thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of dispute.”
(Friedrich Nietzsche)

You are on the hardest journey of life, this climb towards the best you possible. This is the journey of maturity, where you learn to influence more by reacting less.

One of the underlooked essentials to this growth has been your ability to suspend your beliefs enough to genuinely hear another view. Think about it: every new truth you’ve come to accept required, at some point, your willingness to suspend what you believed…for at least a moment.

And you’ve had many people in your life do the same for you. As you’ve explored and then exclaimed new opinions, wise people around you suspended their reactions for at least a moment, allowing your words to reverberate around you both. Sometimes this has led you to then question and discredit these new ideas. Sometimes, it has led others to allow you to influence them.

None of this growth happens without a willingness to suspend our reactions and question our beliefs. That’s the only way true listening can ever occur.

Peace begins with pause,