The Wisdom of Children
Happy Monday!
Today I begin to publish on LinkedIn. One will be entertaining work stories and the other will be the wisdom of children.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to read both, choose the one you like, answer the questions, post a comment, and share it with a friend. Even better if you like both!
Let’s see how long I have the discipline to send one every Monday and how long (and how many) people will read and more importantly, think about it, enjoy it and act on whatever you take away from the message.
At the end of the day the design is to make you smile, laugh, and think about something that carries you through the day.
The Wisdom of Children
Okay so at first this may not seem work related but with a little thinking it really can be applied to what we do and situations we encounter. While I have no plans to be linear this post will start at the beginning.
Remember the first time you held an infant? It may have been relatives, friends, or your own. Think of that first time. What did you learn? Chances are you learned gentleness.
You carefully got the infant from a crib or someone’s arms, you might have had some anxiety, wonder or outright fright but at the moment you took them in your arms you learned to be gentle. Wrap your arm around the child. Cradle their head. My first infant was my sisters. I took him in my arms a bit nervous and suddenly thought; what a fragile thing! Be gentle, keep them safe!
How will you apply the lesson of being gentle? Will it be with empathy for someone close? With a sensitive situation at work? You decide and most importantly; apply the lesson learned.
Find an opportunity this week to be gentle.
Feel free to add your story and if gentleness was not what you learned then what was it? Let the comments begin!
David, I really enjoyed your post on the wisdom of children. More often than not we think that it our children that will learn from us and rarely do we look at all that our children have taught us. Gentleness is not something that I would have thought of, but you are correct in that we do not practice enough in the workforce. I can speak from experience when I say that many of the interactions will my colleagues are rushed, efficient and business oriented. Maybe through being a little more gentle with others in the workplace, we might just learn something new about that person of even uncover a hidden talent. Thanks again for making me think -- well done. Keep it up and best of luck.
Thank you for the new blogs, I liked them both, but was moved by the Wisdom of Children article. What a nice gentle reminder to be gentle with one another when ever possible! You never know what another person is living through and what your empathy and caring might mean to them. A great way to start the Memorial Day weekend, being thankful and caring toward those that have sacrificed so much for our freedom. I’m looking forward to Monday’s posts!
In today's fast-paced and hyper connected world, gentleness is looked at as weakness compared to the aggressiveness of our ambitions. Imagine how the world would be if we all took a step back and were more gentle with each other.
I was involved with some change management communications recently and I made sure I was empathetic toward my audience. Things that have been done the same for years were changing and change can be a scary thing for some people. So, as I drafted talking points, FAQs etc. I tried to be empathetic to how employees could be feeling.