The Richly or Poorly Show
Show Transcript
shdawson-20260707.mp3
Episode 07/07/2026
07/07/2026
Hello! Welcome to The Richly or Poorly Show!
My name is Dr. Stephen Dawson, and I am your show host.
Thank you for joining me.
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The show's motto is unmistakable: RICHLY IS GOODLY!
Please consider how you define the term good as we journey through life together in your pursuit of defining the term richly in your life.
Last week, I presented how to achieve the condition known as communication based on your efforts to message with your intended receiver. I defined Followership Failure as a follower fails to follow their leader when they cannot accomplish what is expected to the point of required of them in the leader-follower relationship. I presented the first two Followership Failures:
-Insufficiency
-Insecurity
Remember, a leader and follower form this relationship by free choice. Otherwise, the relationship is not a leader leading a follower to follow. It is something constructed by force, such as a commander forcing others to obey them, or a bully forcing people to respect them.
Today, I will present on how to accomplish judgment while mitigating the dangers of judgment. I will also present the third Followership Failure.
There are several past episodes that you will benefit from hearing to contextualize the presentation today. I suggest you review these episodes, as you see fit.
I presented on December 9th, 2025, the first principle I have found as paramount, undeniable, and non-negotiable to living life more richly:
Understand Your Data Lifecycle
I presented the culmination of a story shared over a few episodes in the January 27th, 2026, episode. I shared how it took me many years to get to the point of forgiveness based on how I approached the act of judging the facts, the circumstances, and my reasoning of both of those pieces of the picture.
I presented on May 26th, 2026, the second principle I have found as paramount, undeniable, and non-negotiable to living life more richly:
Purpose Defines Process
I presented on June 9th, 2026, the third aspect of the Truth:
Wisdom Always Leads to the Truth
I state to you now, without a doubt, that I was terrible at accomplishing judgment as a child. I had insufficient training, insufficient patience to deal with the insufficient training, and nowhere near enough information to arrive at anything close to a judgment. I had no problem taking action. It is a matter of the value of the action I took at the time. I would do the best I could with what I had available to me at the time, come to a conclusion, arrive at a decision, and act on my decision. This process I followed is, essentially, the process any reasonable person would follow based on the same conditions. It was a horrible experience for me. It will always be a horrible experience for anyone who is not trained to accomplish judgment. It is horrible because deep inside of the person doing the judging is a clear understanding that there are not enough facts in hand to come to a decision and render a judgment.
So, how to get out of the mess known as insufficient training, insufficient patience to deal with the insufficient training, and nowhere near enough information to arrive at anything close to a judgment. The way out is being willing to regret all judgments rendered. All, as in 100% of the judgments rendered. This willingness is called asking for forgiveness. A person asking for forgiveness, in this case, is a follower of a person or persons who showed them their failure in their decision-making process that led them to their poor judgment.
The third Followership Failure is:
-Poor Judgment
The feeling experienced when realizing a poor judgment action occurred is regret. Regret is a complicated feeling. There is regret about the embarrassment of judging poorly, regret about the circumstances placed on another person or persons that were judged poorly, and the wonderment about what will happen now that the poor judgment has been realized and perhaps known widely by those who are upset about the poor judgment.
So, here is where I am going with accomplishing judgment while mitigating the dangers of judgment. There is always the need to arrive at a conclusion and render judgment. It is only the intellectual coward who refuses to gain the facts on events impacting them directly and claims they do not want to be judgmental of another person in any way. This logic does nothing but enable further events to come to them that they do not like in ways that cause them tangible forms of harm. I decided years ago that I cannot afford the damage an intellectual coward brings to my life. So, intellectual cowards are not a part of my life.
Now, the part about how to mitigate the dangers of judgment. I think of people in my earlier life. I think of how my childhood friends went to other friends because of opportunity. They went to other friends after advancing to middle school, where they were exposed to those in high school. The lure for them was to have more in their life at the time by way of ideas and sometimes things like beer or cigarettes that were not available to those in junior high school. Later, it was the choice on their part to embrace racism. That was hard on me, but it did not kill me. I lost touch with all of them over the years. I type their name into the Internet search engines now and then and see that all of them, and I mean all of them, have a life that does interest me based on their choices for their lives. I wish them all well and am grateful their choices did not pollute my life.
I then think of those who were a part of my life after high school. I see the crowd who went to college, graduated, worked 30 years, retired, and are hoping they do not have to go back to work because they run out of money. I see the crowd who quit high school to start work, where their knees and backs were worn out from overuse by their 40s, and are hoping they do not lose the ability to work, causing them to run out of money.
I looked at those folks and judged their behaviors as poor choices. I then, over the years, came to a different conclusion. I now look on each of them as being faced with circumstances, choosing, and living with the repercussions of their choices. I came to this understanding based on the repercussions of my choices for my life.
I felt bad for judging my peers as I did. This feeling that I define as bad is how I have found to mitigate the dangers of judgment. I am not saying by any means that there is one size that fits all when measuring any aspect of any person dealing with their life. I am saying that we all have good hair days and bad hair days. Our appearance, our actions, and our choices are not always the best we can choose at any specific time. There is no need to not be friends with a person when there is a sufficient overlap in worldviews, or at least to be polite to each and every person at all times.
The essence of how I have found to mitigate the dangers of judgment is when I cannot be polite to a person. If I cannot be polite, then I have judged them and found them unworthy of my kindness. This condition is what I view as wrong behavior for me, based on my worldview, my ethics, and my morality. The beneficial behavior for me is experiencing a constant healthy form of fear caused by my being unwilling to be polite to anyone. I am not talking about always being pushed around or taking whatever is thrown at me. I am talking about being able to politely tell the truth to anyone at any time on any subject. If I cannot be honest, then all I am doing is wasting the time of another person who is trying to relate to me. I have already judged them as being unworthy to accept the Truth from my words and actions. This condition brings nothing but harm. So, there lies another way to mitigate the dangers of judgment. If I cannot be honest with anyone about any topic, then it is better not to have them be a part of my life. This removal from my life eliminates the risk of poor judgment on my part.
I leave you today with this thought. How badly do you want to live alone? If you cannot handle the risk of being judged poorly by another, then the only way to deal with that problem is to live alone. The world is becoming more crowded by the day. The likelihood of being able to live alone is low, as all aspects of life are on you to accomplish both surviving and thriving. The same goes for me.
I have found that poor judgment by anyone is an unpleasant part of life that must be handled as any other unpleasant part of life. It is handled by having a predetermined plan to resolve the repercussions of poor judgment. This plan is constructed by collecting objectively all of the facts available at the time, using wisdom to understand the facts, and letting wisdom lead you to the Truth. The same goes for me. Then, when the time comes for the Truth to be revealed about the poor judgment that occurred, it is much less painful to seek forgiveness.
How do I know this is the Truth? Simple. There is no need to ask for forgiveness without having the simultaneous ability to forgive. The giving and receiving of forgiveness is an ongoing aspect of life. It is part of the beauty of life, regardless of how much pain, how much time, and how much effort is required to experience forgiveness.
Well, that's it for today.
RICHLY IS GOODLY!
Remember, the show episode transcripts await you on the podcast web page.
Remember, the show episode map web page awaits you so you can both find and enjoy a group of show episodes with ease.
Please consider all you have heard from me today.
I hope you are excited about how you can apply the material I present to you on the show to your life, so you can live your life more richly than you have ever known!
Thank you for joining me for this episode of The Richly or Poorly Show!
I have enjoyed presenting to you today.
Until the next episode, I hope you will be safe and join me next week.
Until then.
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