I have been asked many times where I find the inspiration for my next blog. When I first started writing these blogs six months ago, I planned to use the decade-plus of content that I have developed for my corporate training programmes. In reality, less than 20% of my blogs have been ‘cut and paste’ techniques from my training content. It’s no surprise that day to day events and observations provide great relevant content that can be linked back to a life lesson or communication application.
I first realised over 25 years ago when I was asked to be best man at a friend’s wedding. I had a carefully curated speech planned which I had stressed over for weeks before the big day, and then on the day itself, so many amusing things happened that I ended up referring to them more than my actual speech! I have since given two more best man speeches and each time it was the same; events on the day provided the richest content because everyone could relate to them.
We are offered learning opportunities every day, and often by people we would never expect to teach us anything, people we may never encounter again. I once read that ex-US President Bill Clinton approaches any meeting with the mindset “What can I learn from this person?”. I don’t know if this is true, but I absolutely love the concept as it’s a game changer in terms of social interaction. Imagine, meeting someone as accomplished as President Clinton, and he is more interested in you than you are in him! Furthermore, the reason for this is that he is trying to learn something from you!!
This is truly inspiring and in my limited experience of meeting extremely successful people, the outliers in our society, they often they exhibit this skill. I was once introduced to a self-made billionaire by the age of 30 who had dropped out of college to start an online business in the late-90’s. We played pool for 2 hours and all he wanted to know about was my life as an expatriate in Hong Kong. Every time I tried to quiz him on his incredible success, he deflected the attention back on me. He was an amazing listener, and I am convinced that he was destined for success even if he hadn’t struck gold so early in his life.
The point I want to make here is that we can find inspiration every day by observing and listening. Everyone has their story, everything happens for a reason. We may not agree with it, but we can learn from it. The others perspective is their reality and only by understanding their perspective can you hope to influence them. Difficult or Easy, Cheap or Expensive, Aggressive or Friendly. They are all relative concepts and where you see one, your counterpart may see the other.
So thank you to all those that have asked me where I get my inspiration from. It’s you.
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