Clever versus Wise
Personal growth is a journey from outward to inward
As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, I became fascinated with politics at an early age. Not only was I passionate about America’s history and heritage of freedom and opportunity, I also thought politics was the best venue for helping make the world a better place.
Over the years, I’ve learned more about the limits of politics and how it’s personal growth and relationships that can truly change the world. This quote from Rumi perfectly captures what I’ve learned during the last two decades:
We definitely need conscious leaders in government, politics, business and other spheres of societal influence. But too often, we’re motivated by what we can outwardly do without first looking at what we can first inwardly do.
The wisdom of Rumi’s quote frequently surfaces during coaching sessions. Often a client is struggling with a specific relationship or issue, and they want to fix it as fast as possible. Their focus is entirely outward-facing. It’s the circumstances that need to change, not them.
As the coach, my role is help them see that sometimes we can’t change circumstances or other people. But we can change how we view the situation and how we engage with others. It’s amazing how shifting our energy and approaching a situation with an open perspective can dramatically shift the dynamics.
Suddenly that coworker who was irritating you is viewed with empathy. And new opportunities to engage them in a more productive manner start popping up. Have the circumstances or other person changed? No, but you have changed. And you’ve become wise by realizing you simply needed to work on yourself.
It doesn’t mean the person or circumstances will change immediately, but the suffering and irritation can subside substantially because you wisely chose to shift how you engage.
It’s still important to want to change the world for the better, but the key to true, lasting change in the world happens once we move from being clever to being wise and working on ourselves.
Work happy. Live happy. BE happy.
Meredith
The way we work and build teams is rapidly changing. Leaders often feel unprepared to navigate the transition. As a conscious leadership coach, consultant and communicator, Meredith helps leaders and their teams create new ways of working and relating so they can prepare for the future by consciously co-creating it.
Contact her to develop your conscious leadership and transform your organization into the workplace of the future.
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