Factual Empathy
by Michael Feeley
Empathy is the choice to understand another person. How they think, feel, and why they act the way they do.
It takes effort, sincere curiosity, and dedication to develop empathy for another person. It’s called emotional labor.
You decide to stand in that person’s shoes – to see them through your eyes. Examining how they see the world. What are their hopes, fears, dreams, doubts, failures, successes, and self-opinion? That person may be completely different from how you think and act, but you still choose to delve into their thoughts and feelings.
As you develop empathy, you gain a deeper understanding of the person. What are their skills and core values, and what motivates them to do their work? This all adds up to factual empathy, which stands for the truth about another person.
As you learn the facts and have feelings about someone, you may discover that the facts are not always nice, pleasant, good, friendly, kind, or ethical.
When you have factual empathy, you get to decide whether you want to further connect with the person, walk away, or work on creating positive, healthy change, which can include challenging their choices and actions.
Factual empathy usually won’t let you down.
Thanks – Michael (he, him)
Please share my Daily with others.
This matters too – Practice Empathy.
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