This is a slogan I use to help me put things in perspective: “We are all learning.” You can tell it to yourself whenever someone does something you don’t like.

What does it mean? If someone is rude, it just means he has a lot to learn about being considerate or managing his anger. If my co-worker screws up, she has some things to learn about the work. If my child screws up or acts badly, she also has a lot to learn about life.

And that’s OK. We all have things to learn. We are all in the process of learning, all the time. We’re at different stages with different skills, but none of us has learned everything. And if we realize this, we can then be patient with this fellow learner, who after all, can’t be expected to know everything and be perfect, right?

Leo Babauta — The Little Book of Contentment