The Level-Thinking

There will always be people who are superior or inferior to us.

While it is easier to accept the person who’s superior to us, we tend to adopt the ‘outcast-mentality’ to those inferior. We have an in-built sense of which association will benefit us and raise our own standards.

In theory, we all know that no man can be superior in all sense. But then why do we still slot on the basis of knowledge, background and value. This is an acknowledgement of how inferior we truly can be.

In my personal quest to be a well-rounded person, I have adopted the "Level-Thinking" into my life. “Level-Thinking” helps me to be conscious of who am dealing with and shed whatever shades of pre-conceived notions I may have in a given situation.

Say you meet Mr. A, who in a situation is more knowledgeable, more valuable and in your eyes – superior. He is above us in that mental scale of ours. We shift gears and try to match to his level. This is called “Going UP”. Once this state is achieved, we see them on the same level as us. And in this whole process, we learn those aspiring values.

Now we meet Mr. B, who hasn’t reached our level of thinking. And in our eyes, he’s inferior. We slow down and let him reason with our level of thinking. Slowly he rises to match our level. This is called “Catching UP”. What we actually did was to go DOWN to his level and then bring him UP to ours. This is tougher of the two, but in this process you re-learn.

And chances are, you will learn something new too and scaled even higher.