“I would never” is easy to say from a place you’ve never been. Save some humility for when you get there.

From the outside, other people’s decisions look like choices between right and wrong, because you cannot see the pressure, the tiredness, or the three bad options they were actually picking from. Standing in it changes the arithmetic. Most people who did the thing you swore you never would were not worse than you, just further along a road you have not walked.

When you catch yourself judging a decision from a distance, try adding one honest sentence: I do not know what I would do there. It costs you nothing and it keeps you from making a promise you may not keep.