Skip to main content

THE BRILLIANCE OF DIVERSITY ~ Robin Sharma

Imagine living in a world where every movie you see has the same story line. Imagine if the only choice of drink was water and the only flavor of ice cream was chocolate (okay maybe that one wouldn't be so bad). Imagine that every conversation with every person made the same point. And imagine that every day had the same ending and that every thought reflected the same idea. There's a point I'm getting to. Please stay with me.

When I go into organisations to help inspire, develop and elevate employees so they play at world-class levels (and I've been crisscrossing this planet on this Leadership Crusade for nearly ten years now), I often see mission statements espousing a respect for diversity. "We at ClientCo value differences and cherish diversity." And, most of the companies I work with actually do. But here's my question: Do you?

Do you really get the brilliance of diversity? When you really think about it, it's the people who see the world through a different set of lenses that actually serve to  stretch your thinking and provoke new understanding (and provoke they do). Sure they irritate you. They drive you crazy. Because they are not like you. But may I suggest that behind your irritation is the emotion of fear (big idea there). Not the terror on the darkness type of fear. More a fear of the unknown or a fear of having to leave the Safe Harbour of The Known (the worldview that you've had your whole life) and maybe see a new way of seeing things. No one likes to leave the shores of the home they know. Always brings up fear. Scary yes. For your ultimate growth and good? Absolutely.

Never run away from what will help you grow and step into your greatness - no matter how uncomfortable it makes you feel (that's where courage and your natural bravery needs to be called into service).

Yup - diversity helps us in ways we cannot fathom. Makes us better (by a lot). Those different people with different perspectives and different skin colours and different languages can equip you with your MILs (Most Important Lessons). The people and experiences that are different offer you the gorgeous opportunity to rethink the assumptions and closely held opinions you have lived your life under. Takes a ton of outright courage to open your mind - as well as your heart - and listen to what they tell you. Uber-uncomfortable to think that you might not be right. That the way you see the world (or whatever) just might be flawed in some way. Or that there may be a better way (of thinking or behaving or working or living). But unless you are willing to empty the cup that is full, no more can enter. And you just might miss out on your greatest possibilities. And your best life.

Extracted from  his Little Book of  Stunning Success you can follow the link below

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

FAITH

Is there ever a time where its reasonable to have faith? Like really. When is it reasonable to have faith? Because if you think about it, whenever its reasonable to have faith it is no longer faith but just rationalisation.. When you have reasons to have faith its just that, reasons. Faith has no reason either than you really wanting something. Faith is not based on any concrete evidence, ever. Faith is the decision of a mind to maintain a disciplined positive expectation of a desired outcome.. And most of us fail in this because our faith fluctuates.. Usually we want reasons to have faith.. The most interesting part in life is that most of who we desire to be is dependant on faith. Just choosing to expect the best and that is independent of any religious beliefs or philosophy. Its a consistent act of a person to choose faith over fear, fear over not having concrete evidence to back it up. Faith is the complete surrender of the need to control things and to have it all f...

A MAN CAN CHOOSE TO BE ANYTHING

"A man can choose to be anything. He can partake in, be a part of anything that he wants to. He can become a beast, he can become a god. He can do anything." This thought keeps reappearing in all the writings of man. It states that we become what we choose to become whether we realise it or not. This is so true because as I grow older, I notice just how broad my being is. BEING : the continuous movement of becoming!! As a high school pupil I only saw myself as a math and science student whose aim was to be a master of science and nothing more. And then in  first year varsity I noticed my perception   grew   from a science student to one whose aim was to be a respectable chemical engineering professional, then suddenly I noticed that not only do I love science, but I have a proclivity for some business,  philosophy and even writing who knew!! And then that grew to psychology, which grew to  philosophy and spirituality and all of this my high-school-year old...

SIGNIFICANT FIGURES

On the bus to work I was busy go through my budget this month in my head. And as I was doing that, I was thinking of how we always have to make arrangements for unforeseen expenses, so I was thinking along the line of "roughly it will cost me this much." However as I had that thought another then just came up, and that was there are no insignificant numbers. Numbers that have no bearing to the total sum whatsoever. As an engineering student in my first year I got introduced to an unfamiliar term, "significant figures", quite frankly I am surprised I still remember this.In engineering and science we have to account for the significant decimals places that are there in a number. (Google this). For example if a number has the highest numbers of significant figures meaning more numbers after the decimal we take that as the numbers of significant figures we must round of to. So if you have a number that is 2.0003, those zeroes are significant because they can/will...