In all endeavors,

seek to avoid mistakes,

not win praise.

It’s probably no exaggeration to say that the vast majority of us like to be praised.

This is not necessarily all bad. Praise from those entrusted with the responsibility to raise us, teaches us how to behave respectfully and ethically. It encourages us to act in ways that enhance our lives and not detract from them. Clearly good.

But praise should not drive our behavior because that would make praise our goal. Rather, our goal should be to not make mistakes—either technically or ethically. Those who wish us to become honorable adults teach and exemplify honorable behavior and humility. For whatever reasons, others less fortunate may grow up craving praise. At any cost. And so from misguided people on Twitter to the neighborhood teenager with an Instagram account, we have people who will do anything for attention, for praise.

A terribly risky, and sad, way to live.

Do We Fear Causes or Results? (Click image for video)

Being caught up in judging what seems to be, 

we miss what really is. 

Remember those blind men who were each taken to a different part of an elephant: its head, an ear, a tusk, its trunk, its stomach, a foot, its tail, and the tuft of its tail?

Asked to describe the elephant, each man announced what it resembled: a pot, a basket, a plowshare, a plow, a storehouse, a pillar, a pestle, and a brush. We can only imagine that as each man proclaimed what an elephant was like, he must have wondered what on earth the others were talking about.

But each man, knowing what he had experienced in examining the elephant, only became even more insistent that he was right. All the others had to be wrong. And so, instead of sharing what they had learned and discussing among themselves why they had reached such different opinions, they began to fight amongst themselves.

When we, like those men, become adamant that we know all that needs to be known and close our mind to others, we too run the serious risk of missing what really is.