Joe Hudson’s third shift in ending procrastination was learning to actively welcome judgment. His reasoning: “If somebody triggers me with their judgment, then there’s some freedom that I know I can find.” When judgment tweaks you, there’s something to learn. When it doesn’t, you’re already free there. Either way, judgment becomes valuable rather than threatening.
He frames it like hitting bad notes on guitar — not as catastrophe but as essential feedback. “I can’t actually do an art form without judgment and get better.” Others’ discernment helps him refine: he’s not reaching them, not elucidating ideas usefully, or triggering something without addressing it. Each piece of judgment is data for improvement.
“If I get triggered, I’m going to learn something. Then what on earth would make me scared of being judged?”
Critically, this isn’t masochism. It’s about freedom — “a place where I get to be more free, where my ego gets to be a little bit more dissolved.” And it comes with discernment: Joe chooses whose judgment to care about. He doesn’t care whether people uninterested in transformation like his work. He cares deeply about the judgment of people who genuinely want to transform.
Related Concepts
- Openness to judgment beats defense
- Letting judgment break your heart open
- Triggers as freedom opportunities
- Judgment signals unfelt emotion
- Intuition sees what the logical mind cannot