articles
China Elevator Stories
Is it the Right Direction?
Direction matters.
15/05/2025
Ruth Silbermayr
Author
When you’re asked to keep your distance, what you should actually do is keep your distance.
When you’re looking to find something on the outside within the other person, is the direction you’re looking at the right direction? Are you supposed to look on the outside or on the inside? Now, the answer depends and isn’t always the same. If the problem is within another person, then I can look within myself as much as I want—that’s not where I’m going to find it. If you’re the other person, you can claim that the problem is within the other person as much as you want, and claim she’s the one who needs to change—it won’t change reality, which is that you’re looking at the wrong person, in the wrong direction.
Sometimes you’re also looking at the wrong thing. Direction matters.
It also matters if you’re even in a position where you’re allowed to look at something. If you look at something from the wrong perspective, and with the wrong mindset or the wrong set of experiences, you’re already looking at a problem with the wrong attitude. That’s never going to solve the problem if you do that. If you have identified the wrong person or thing as the problem, you’re not doing anybody a favor—but the opposite is the case.
Giving a person the benefit of the doubt is the most powerful thing you can ever do when applied correctly. Correctly identifying the problem as the problem is also powerful.
And knowing what we are able to do as human beings—which skills and possibilities a certain person has—will make it clear to us if she’s actually able to solve a problem on her own or not.
If you’re looking in the wrong direction, or if you’re looking at the wrong issue—then you’re onto the wrong thing and are identifying the issue incorrectly.
As human beings, we also have to know if we’re a calculator or a computer.
If you believe, as a human being, that you’re a computer, but actually you’re a calculator, your assumption about yourself is already wrong. If you’re a computer and you believe you’re only a calculator, that assumption would also be wrong.
We should know, as a calculator, that we’re a calculator, and as a computer, that we’re a computer. If we know that, it will be easier for others as well, because we aren’t misrepresenting ourselves, we aren’t feeling superior when we aren’t, or inferior when we aren’t, and we’re only doing that which we’re made to do—not that which we aren’t.
We also stay within the range of things we’re able to do, and don’t try to be a computer instead of a calculator, when there isn’t ever any chance of us becoming a computer. As a computer, we also don’t try to change into something that is merely a calculator. Also, if you’re a calculator—not a computer—but you’re constantly talking about how great a computer you are, this points to a lack of awareness. Something that’s really easy to see for others, and is imminent within you, is hard to see for you. For others, it may be really, really stressful that you’re still talking about how you’re a computer, when actually, you’re simply a calculator.
This doesn’t mean that you don’t have any skills, but it means that you don’t have as many as a computer. And if you can’t even discern that within yourself—well, what are you then able to discern?
If we are humble enough, we’d appreciate the skills we have and we’d stay within the range of our own skills, and wouldn’t constantly be aiming to become a computer, when our hardware is simply not set up in a way to ever be a computer.
How important do you think direction is?