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Partnering for Success
The
course of our life, the things we achieve, the happiness we
feel, are all in some way effected by the people around us. This column includes tips on how to be more
successful and enjoy
life even in the tough times by forging winning
partnerships—partnerships that help you and those around you
prosper.
A
Column by Philippa Courtney
October 2002
See the Extraordinary in the Ordinary
My birthday is coming up this month. To me birthdays are more than
milestones; they are here to remind us that we are alive—consider
the alternative.
Maybe the reason so many people buy new toys and make cosmetic
changes around their birthday is not so much to make them younger,
but to help them feel more alive. There is another solution, one
better than buying a new convertible, something that will give you a
new lease on life—something, as
they say, that will kick you in the butt and get you out of your rut—something
that will cost whole a lot less than a sports car or face lift. Just
imagine what it would be like to see the world around you as if it
were the first time.
When you meet someone who relishes every minute of life,
frame-by-frame, don't you want to talk to that person and get to
know them? Just as genuine interest in others invites them to be a
partner in your success, so does a sense of wonder about life.
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A favored few come by this ability naturally. Great teachers
have that uncanny skill of explaining something like they had
just discovered it themselves. And of course there are
children, and those of us who behave like them; who
continually find magic in the mundane. Artists and inventors
also have an eye for seeing things from a new perspective.
This is in fact the essence of creativity.
My friend Tonia and I were on our way back from hearing a
band the other evening and even though she has lived in the
same city her whole life, she pointed out that the best show
in our town was the view of the clouds over the skyline.
Tonia lights up a room wherever she goes. She brings a fresh
perspective to the college courses she has taught many times,
and she continually expresses an excitement in a world that
to many other people just remains the same. |
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People who see life through a new
lens
attract the support they need to be successful
Develop an attitude of awe and
others will think you are awesome |
Flying back from the UK in June, I read a wonderful article in
High Life magazine by Alain de Botton in which he asked how we
could experience the same excitement about our home that
foreigners have when they see it. The concept being that we can
learn to take our imaginary cameras, our curiosity, and our
excitement when we travel across town, just like we would when
we are abroad. The pleasure we experience on any journey is
more dependent on our mindset than our destination.
Do you think it's impossible to see the place you live and work
from a fresh point of view? You wouldn't say that about looking
at a sunset or the face of your young child. Just like the
subtle shift of light on a familiar scene or the smile on a
loved one's face, the world and the people around you are not
always the same.
This month set a goal of seeing your world anew. Take the time
to step outside of your routine, to wander and rediscover your
neighborhood. Disassociate yourself from what you think you
know and really look at all the familiar things around you.
Listen to the orchestra of sounds that fills your world. Author
Beppe Severgnini, in his cheeky cultural take on the U.S. took
four pages to describe all the noises he heard when he and his
family lived in Washington, D.C. for a year. Could you describe
a day in your life as if you had just arrived from another
country?
To paraphrase the philosopher Nietzsch, people are divided into
two groups, the minority who make much of little, and the
majority who make little of much. The benefit of being fully
alive and seeing the people and things around you as though
they were new, not only enhances your personal satisfaction,
but facilitates your success.
Those that go around, trying to find the latest and greatest to
stimulate themselves, are as Nietzsch said, like bobbing corks,
at the mercy of the surging waves of destiny.
Learn to make much of little. Find the magic in the mundane and
live a richer life. Develop an attitude of awe and others will
think you are awesome.
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