Staying alert to the stories we tell ourselves about others is important. I usually think I'm pretty good at not just looking for information to validate my own view point. To the point that when I read Seth Godin's blog today about narratives, I thought I'm actually pretty good about this.
The universe has a tricky way of knocking you down a peg when you need to be though. The same day, I realized that I was telling myself a narrative about someone that was inhibiting the potential relationship we could have. Then a certain topic of conversation surprised me sufficiently enough to force me to be in the moment and put the narrative aside. I couldn't believe how narrow a viewpoint I was taking and all of the information I was ignoring because it was contrary to my narrative. Luckily, the conversation unfolded the way it did and now I have an opportunity to dig deeper and craft a new narrative that's useful.
Being a Force for Good 