Judgment is such a difficult concept. Especially when it comes to grading ourselves on this specific dimension. Judgment is the step before making a choice. Judging the desirability of the options you see in front of you.
Valuable or worthless? Opportunity or trap? Risky or safe? Honest or lying? Confused or deceived? Sincere or not? Responsible? Honest? Company has room to grow or is it dying? Will the stock continue to go up? Are you seeing the best that an individual can give at his job?
The list can go on. Each day we are asked to judge something. When we shop, when we talk to others, and as we go about making choices throughout our lives.
Unfortunately there are no books on improving our judgment. I find that it is helpful to always check with people whose experiences are different than yours as to whether or not the way you see things is reasonable. It is an objective to way to check your judgment albeit it will take some time on your part to connect with others.
Experience is the final point of feedback that can help our judgment improve. We aren’t going to get it right every time. So we need to take a few minutes, both when things go well as when they don’t, to try to review how we reached our judgment that then influenced our choices.
All of us become biased by our judgments. What you may find risky will lead you on a more passive path. I don’t judge the same set of circumstances as risky. My judgment will send me on a more aggressive path towards an outcome.
At first as adults, we must learn how to survive. After that, we need to be focused on how we can improve ourselves to make our life better. Keeping an eye on your scorecard for judgment is a great way to keep growing.