Category: Professional

A while ago I had been green lighted for publication of an article in the an international education magazine but their publication schedule has changed

When I sit down across from someone and there is no agenda on the table except for the topic of conversation, when I am fully present and manage to quiet the voices in my head that shoot answers every second to what I think I hear, I enter a new realm, that of real connection. Everyone wants to be heard. Everyone wants to feel important, even if for a few minutes. It is one of the greatest signs of respect and one of the most generous gifts to offer.

Communication without emotion is dry and incomplete. Communication with too much emotion may miss the mark and not reach its purpose. It may push away. So how do we find the sweet spot?

Once you enriched the conversation with what you observed from “the weeds”, you can come back to “the dance floor” and, many times, dance quite a different, maybe a slower, more mindful dance towards a solution.

Conflict stirs things up – and this is why it is good and bad, all at the same time.  It is uncomfortable and it brings up lots of emotions and ideas that we may like better under the rug. At the same time, as Brene Brown says, if you are not uncomfortable, you’re not learning.

Battle by battle, we win the war – the war of standing up for ourselves, of building experience that will make the next battle easier, of understanding ourselves and what we can do – always more than we initially thought or the voices told us we can.