Belonging to a group where people share the same interests is always a challenge because all these individual thoughts and feelings, opinions and points of view provide the necessary confrontations for an ongoing learning process. When different human beings try to find a consensus concerning their individual points of view, the offer to learn about oneself, as well as about each other and many realms of life is very impressive. Dealing with all these individual human aspects reveals how intense learning can be because there are always various things to be considered and thought about at the same time.

For the one who is willing to learn it will soon become obvious that it is not so easy to listen to each other if the topic is not of one's own interest, but that it is necessary to learn showing esteem and respect by patiently listening, so offered thoughts can be taken serious enough, in order to think about them. This mirrors one’s own effort of wanting to understand each other, which is a basic condition when people work together. It is also very important to be honest enough, so as to speak one’s own mind, even though everybody else’s opinion is different. A lot of energy goes into this whole process of learning, but without any work and effort, there cannot be any success.
 
Thus it follows that reaching a mutual understanding for each other is a long process and needs a lot of time and patience because not only thoughts and points of view have to be repeatedly exchanged, but also explanations have to be articulated in different words and from different angles, in order to make everything understandable. It certainly hasn’t anything to do with taking the path of least resistance. It has to do with giving in to hard work that finally results in success and in the satisfactory feeling of having given one’s best and having progressed together.
 
When two human beings work together and are willing to share their thoughts, then they create an atmosphere, which benefits the development of a connection. They not only provide the opportunity of learning about each other and gaining insight into the other individuality, but they also achieve knowledge about themselves.

To be interested and willing to understand another human being requires a lot of thinking about acceptance, esteem, respect and equality, which furthers the tolerance for the other individuality. The human tendency to look down on one’s fellowman and assume to know better in any case what should be done, lets pass unnoticed the valuable inputs from other sides. To feel better than one’s fellowman makes it easy to say, “Oh well, this person doesn’t understand at all, and now I have more important things to do than taking my time to take care of all this.” There should always be time for necessary explanations, in order to clarify things and make them understandable. It is quite disadvantageous though to feel too good to listen to someone else’s thoughts. Even though this person doesn’t seem to understand what this is all about, it is generally worth to think about it. The reason why is the fact that nothing is so perfect, certainly at least one’s own thoughts, that it isn’t worthwhile to include new aspects and think about it again; the result might be amazing.

Making an effort to work with each other, to understand each other and to progress with each other is indeed a first class life experience with the wonderful effect of a growing connection between the participants. The basic factor, which has to be considered, so as to make this experience successful in its many different realms and to allow the development of a mutual growing connection, is honesty. It is very important to honestly speak one’s mind to someone else or to a group of people because everybody has the right to be confronted with the truth and the reality of another personality. Only in this way the understanding and the feeling for another human being and his individual way of thinking, feeling and acting can be gained.

There is courage and freedom in speaking one’s mind, but there is cowardice and self-imprisonment in hiding one’s thoughts, only because one is afraid of feeling embarrassed. Nobody has to be afraid of something; this only hinders one’s own development as well as the development of a whole group. And nobody has to look down on somebody else only because there is a difference in points of view, in understanding or acting, for one thing is totally sure: nobody is perfect. It is advantageous to courageously face a situation and stand by one’s own opinion because either there is the possibility to contribute something valuable or the awareness that one’s own thoughts went wrong.

If a mistake is made despite an honest intention, it results generally in being dismayed or at least angry and embarrassed. Since the mistake was made because of lacking knowledge, the experience awakens a certain incentive of wanting to understand the circumstances, in order to prevent the mistake in the future. Being embarrassed is not bad though because this uncomfortable feeling can be transformed into the best motivation in order to change something.
 
But if mistakes are made on purpose, because of selfish intents, then there is always a slightly nagging burden in the background of becoming exposed. This is not only burdening, but also a waste of energy, for being permanently occupied to hide one’s intent keeps one rather busy. Nevertheless, sooner or later the selfish behaviour will be exposed, which is not only embarrassing, but might forever destroy the confidence once given to the person concerned.

Being honest, doing as best as one knows and making mistakes anyway, only means to evolve. It’s a big error to assume one can prevent making mistakes. Those people, who always try to hide their mistakes because they want to be better than their fellowman, have not yet understood the meaning of life. Fact is: no human being is better than another one, because everybody is making mistakes; therefore, no one has to be embarrassed about the mistake itself, only about the refusal to learn from it.

To be able to honestly present one’s own opinion in a free and neutral way requires a lot of work because the right behaviour toward one’s fellowman and oneself has to be learned and understood. People who always agree with everything because they are glad that someone is doing the work, or those who can never agree because they think to know better, have not yet enough interest in really being a part of a group.