Gumbo
Since the last blog we’ve gained a lot of new subscribers and followers on social media. WELCOME TO THE FAMILY! Although it’s just me, I see all of my subscribers, on-lookers, followers and supporters as distant family who I just haven’t met face-to-face quite yet. With that being said family, we need to talk.
The climate within the States has been out of control lately. No I’m not talking about climate change, although that’s an issue as well. I’m talking about race. For those that are new, my website and communication is and will always be centered around providing commentary that helps or leads you into greater and sustained success in life as well as transformation within yourself to help accomplish things that were once deemed impossible.
So why did I name this blog "Gumbo"? First off, I love gumbo. I love all of the different flavors, textures and the feeling of having had one of the most creative comfort foods on the face of the
planet. Gumbo reminds me that things you don't typically expect to be put together can make something amazing that everyone can enjoy. Perhaps our lives would be better and more successful if we approached others the same... .
Many people's version of success comes from the strength of what separates them from others. However, separatism will never yield your highest level of success in life. This is because ideas, innovation and progress come through collaborative moments with people from different backgrounds. Our differences are what help us to grow and become better when they transition into our mutual collaborative outcomes.
How do you appropriately engage someone different in your business, community, organization, school or family? Invite. Embrace. Accept. By relinquishing your present assumptions and replacing them with an actual understanding, you open up yourself to experience powerful gifts like collaboration, empathy, and excitement. Never stop learning about one another. A person is not considered a genius because of what they already know. A person carries the title genius because of how they build off pre-existing thoughts and ideas to create new ones. You can do the same by embracing the differences in others.
One of our most helpful and yet at times most divisive tools in life is our past. Both our past failures and successes can be used against others. That makes it hard and often unfair for a person who fits a description only in their differences to be given the chance of proving their strength. Consider this, if we only needed our past to prove who we presently are, there would be no need to work for a future.
One last thing... If you still have a hard time understanding someone who's different, perhaps you can get there by experiencing them first. That is done through empathy. Empathy, in short, is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. However, you can’t understand someone you don’t engage with and you can’t share the feelings of another when yours are in the way. So it's important to be open and genuinely fascinated with others in order to learn and feel more of that persons experience. For example: Everyone cannot understand the plight of being a person of color, but everyone can understand rejection, the fight for self love and esteem, or a need for positive self-identity in the face of others ignorance, the journey for courage and the addiction to hope for better things.
It’s your job to see past distracting bias’s that create subjective judgments of others and learn who people are for our self through objective intention. Everyone can share in it when they use the things that make them different as the exact thing that brings them together. Remember, your success is your responsibility. And your success will be astronomical when you truly master how to understand, work alongside and even collaborate with as many different types of people as possible.
Own Your Actions I Create Your Experiences @MrFrankieWilson