You know when you have those hard, confrontational conversations?
Do you know those awkward moments when you are at an impasse or a dull silence overtakes the conversation?
It could even be a complicated conversation knowing you are letting go of a client, an employee, or breaking up with a partner.No matter how much you love and care deeply about someone, there are no words to help you find understanding.
Then, it dawned on me that everyone operates in their sphere of influence and capacity. However limited or limitless, each one of us has infinite opportunities to lean in, engage, say no thank you to unhealthy situations, and either choose to learn and grow or decide to stay the same.
Why choose to stay…
In a world where anything goes online, we are vulnerable and can be hurt, abused, misused, and taken advantage of. You may even ask,
“What’s the point in trying anymore?”
Choosing to stay open to the infinite- as obstacles come into our lives has massive benefits. Then this quote hit my core and resonated so much truth:
“Finite players play to beat the people around them.
Infinite players play to be better than themselves.”
“No matter how successful we are in life, when we die, none of us will be declared the winner of life.”
“Great leaders are the ones who think beyond “short term” versus “long term.” -Simon Sinek
My husband and I love to dream. Some would say, we are dreamers.
We often talk of when we “make it.”
We’ve had this conversation many times in our relationship. One day, I thought.
“What if there is no it? “
What if you are successful, and nothing feels any different?
Suppose we approach success could be logically broken down in the following example. Imagine you are climbing to the top of a tree. You can make it to the top and feel the moment of making it. Goal reached. Achieved checked off.
Then what? You sit at the top of the tree looking over and towering over all. Eventually you have to come down.
What if we changed the narrative a bit…
What if success was more like keeping climbing, even after you reached the top or height you desired? The journey is in the climb.
To keep seeking
Stay searching
Or
Realizing there is joy in the struggle
Seeing it as an adventure
Feeling gratitude for the climb and the struggle
Or a change of mindset, like finding joy in the climb.
Can I say that success seems to me to be relative to what one individual defines as success?Comparing and contrasting multiple-figure income streams, travel, and many cars vs. the joy and richness of raising a loving family.
These are very different terms for success.
If it is, then success is relative; how do we look at success as development, not as a destination but as progression?
We’ve all had that all-too-well-known conversation where unwarranted advice is given—in suggestion, command, or recommendation. Unsolicited advice. Where all we can do is breathe and pause.Remembering that in a different conversation, I advocate that the world would be a better place to experience being a parent.
Yet, it’s not in everyone’s life plan.
That would be unwarranted advice to people who aren’t interested in parenting, even if I can see the growth and benefits of love.
It’s really about being OPEN to everything and anyone, not letting it deter or sway you, and meeting each other exactly where we are.
Staying open to conversations that are challenging and oppositional usually has brought me much fulfillment.Uncomfortable and sometimes painful. This life has unfolded in my limited perspective as a discovery and understanding that we all work from our own perspectives and belief systems.
Staying open and actually braving the wilderness as Brene´Brown suggests in her insightful book, causes us to use our hearts to see past differences.
Till next time,
Comments +