A mistake that the majority of us make at various points in life

Judging others by our own standards

The following are things that I find difficult to understand in a person because I cannot relate to it:

• intentionally causing harm to animals - this includes things like fishing and other blood sports, actually it goes further than that - I find it difficult to really 'get' someone who doesn't like animals
• cheating on a partner 
• seeing someone in trouble and not reaching out to them - okay I perhaps go too far the other way but to me that is more acceptable.
• a fixation with material gain - I do not understand this as a main motivation, having the best/most expensive/newest thing just doesn't compute in my brain.
• making fun of people or putting them down because of their tastes/beliefs/opinions - obviously it's okay to think it, that is only human but to ridicule someone just is not fair.  There is no 'right'
• Flagrant hypocrisy -  too often 'what's good for the goose is good for the gander' is not observed when people are judged by the standards that the one judging thinks they hold true.

I could go on there are probably more things I find difficult to accept in a person - in fact I could be there for hours, I'm not going to though because that would be a time wasting exercise and would possibly result in me feeling like all humans are shit and so am I - anyway moving on.  I admit that I have almost certainly gone against all of the above at points in my life (apart from the cheating on a partner - I just couldn't do that to someone) and will probably do so again but hopefully not too often (I pulled a few snails out of their shells as a toddler because I thought they were slugs in houses - I still feel a little guilty about this).  I am not perfect, I am a hypocrite and so is everybody else, that doesn't make it okay though it just means there is a lot of work to be done.  The way I see it, the best each of us can hope to achieve in life is to be the best version of ourselves that we can be because no one else is going to do it for us.  I am not wise and I know I have more mistakes to make and lessons to learn from.  Perhaps I am guilty of analysing everything to death but then that is part of who I am and has mainly proved to be a useful quality so far.  As much as I have the occasional 'Victor Meldrew' moment I find people both fascinating and invaluable and although like my much missed Nanna (RIP Joyce) I feel immeasurable love for the animal kingdom, I do believe there is a lot of good in people too.