Two Sides of the Same Coin

A Great Person and Valuable friend once told me:

A sign of a smart person is the number of conflicting ideas one can hold in their head at once.

I took that a face value and thought: ok - I want to be smart, let’s see all the ideas I can fit into my head.

With the current age - ideas are everywhere.

One thing I found as I have more conflicting ideas in my head:

Ideas are perspectives - the ideas can conflict with each other - sometimes, the ideas are “two sides of the same coin.”

This means, the ideas may appear conflicting with each other - looking at a both ideas at a higher level, they are the same.

Example: Love & Hate

Two ideas that appear to conflict: love & hate.

They are polar opposites - what you would do for something you love is drastically different than for something you hate, right?

Ask yourself these questions about something you love:

• Would you would spend all your time thinking about it?
• Would you think about what you would do if you had your way?
• How would you feel afterwards?

Now, ask the same for something you hate.

Do answers line up in a way?

For me, they do - and the “coin” love and hate appear on is energy.

Whether you love or hate something - you expend energy on it. Thinking, doing, chasing/avoiding, etc. it The feeling comes from the same place - you!

Application

With all the conflicting ideas loaded up - I ask myself, which ideas are just different perspectives of the same coin? How do they differ? What’s common to each?

I take these perspective coins and see the world differently, especially where people have conflict, and apply both the perspectives to the situation to look for a resolution.

Or if not - I add a new idea to my head, one that conflicts with a coin.