I am a person who likes to educate and get people to think…though I didn’t always go about it the right way. 

I would pose a question that I already knew the answer to and then go for the big reveal.

People were either receptive to learning something new or they weren’t. Some were annoyed at the questions because they didn’t have the answers to them and felt they were being railroaded.

Fast forward to today. I now know that people are a product of their own personal experiences:

• how they were raised,
• where they were raised, 
• the schools they attended…

These are the things that profoundly influence our lives—among many others. People’s thoughts and ideologies are formed from key experiences and thus make up the nature of their reality. 

Now, instead of attempting to “educate” someone, I simply ask questions that lead me to understand why they think the way they do. Not only are they happy to explain, I get the opportunity to learn something new about their reality and how it shaped their viewpoint. There are never right or wrong answers—only an opportunity to learn. 

And when there is an opportunity to learn, there is hope.