Not long ago I worked at a biathlon on a semi-chilly morning. I was inside collecting the data and typing up the results for most of the morning. My friend Loren, however, was out by the finish line for the 3-hour duration of the activity. About 30 minutes after the activity Loren and I were driving back to our office and she kept commenting on how cold she was. The day had warmed up considerably, however, and I really couldn’t tell how in the world she was still cold. What I had failed to realize, though, was that her body temperature had been lowered from being outside all morning, whereas mine had been retained from staying inside.
So many times we think people are coming from the same place that we are. We assume that they are in our same mood, that they have the same homework load, that they have the same family situation, and that what we hold important or as a priority is the same for them. What we feel (the current temperature) fails to account for their “body temperature” that is affected by who they are and what they have done and where they have been.
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