People are judgmental.

We all live in our own heads, expect other people to think the way we do, rarely consider what it's like to be in someone else's shoes. We make assumptions about what someone means when they say a certain thing, judge others for the kind of language they use in conversation, expect other people to entertain us and give us attention.

Rarely do we take a step outside ourselves and experiment. Listening to what someone else has to say instead of cutting them off, asking them to clarify what they mean instead of jumping to conclusions. We have all this "information" in our heads about symbols: what everything means under the surface, but precious little of it has any kind of verifiable basis.

If you're struggling to have friendships and wondering why relationships never work out for you, ask yourself: who picked my friends/partners? What did I base my friendships off of? Are they people I genuinely respect? Do I appreciate their values?

We often complain about our exes and current relationships, but it was us that chose to be with them. What does that say about how much time we spent vetting said partner, and how good a judge of character we are? And think about all the people we reject as friends or lovers, and how one of those people might have been a better prospect than the one we chose.

Just some food for thought.