Business feels so much better this way

Our family still recalls the joy we felt in the Summer of 2012.
The Summer of the London Olympics.

My wife could barely walk 20 steps without stopping for breath.
Because this was before her heart operation. (Today, she comfortably swims 20 lengths.)
So we pushed her around the Olympic Stadium, and allowed 30 minutes to climb the steps to our seats.

But the scenes we witnessed still bring smiles to our faces and wonder to our hearts.

Yes, we rejoiced in seeing the might of athletes like Ennis and Farah, Hoy, Trott and Wiggins, Ainslei and DuJardin,  Rutherford and Stanning.
But the Paralympic Athletes – the Superhumans – made us gasp in genuine awe.

Beefy, grizzly men either side of us bawled like babies at the sight of the David Weirs and the Hannah Cockcrofts with jet propelled wheelchairs.

Our spirits were lifted, not just by their vanquishing their competitors and claiming Gold.
But also by their overcoming “Am I Less Than?” to become “Greater Than We Thought Possible!”.

Competition demands the best of us.
But I wonder – when this spills over into our working life – whether we know when to stop competing, vanquishing, dominating.

I see messages that encourage us to be powerful, fierce, self-glorifying.
We continue to separate, divide, go our own way. Become Them and Us.

I watched a video this morning which reminded me that what I really need – in my personal and business life – is to grow more kind. To be more loving. To be more generous.

I thought back to the two people – a Financial Planner and a Compliance Manager – each of whom I coached, Pro Bono, for an hour this week.
Their gratitude was effusive.
I felt like laughing with the enjoyment of it all.

It’s likely they will never become clients.
But surely I can afford one hour to help someone who feels lost, confused?

When I behave like that, it washes back and flows over me.
I feel more at peace.
I feel more whole.

To find opportunities to be more generous, sensitive, collaborative; less desperate for our share, or our need to be right.
To be one.

Doesn’t this make of our world a more delightful, more peaceful place?