Saturday Musings - Communication

Over the last several weeks I’ve been sharing with readers on the principles that have helped me in my life. If followed, I believe the principles of truth, trust and learning will assist you in your own decision making and help you grow as an individual. This article will cover the principle of communication, which is one that encompasses everything that I’ve shared so far….and in many respects is one of the most difficult.

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There are many aspects to communication and the first one I will unpack is whether you should enter into a dialogue with a person or not. I believe that most of the time it’s important to keep the lines of communication open, even in the most difficult of circumstances but there are exceptions.

As I mentioned in a previous article I recently experienced a situation where the other person was immediately very aggressive in an email. It was a difficult email to respond to and required a very measured response that I had checked over by a number of people I respect before hitting the send button.

I find that in emotionally charged situations it’s often good to have someone else check over what you are communicating. It’s so easy to get caught up with your feelings and responding in a controlled manner can be difficult. If you find yourself in a difficult situation then make sure you get some advice from someone that is invested in your life. They will often provide a clearer insight to the situation than you can yourself.

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Saturday Musings - Empowered Relationships

Over the last few weeks I’ve been sharing in “Saturday Musings” a number of principles that I try to live my life by. The last two articles in this series cover the result of living a life of truth/trust and truth/learning. This article will address the topic of empowerment and why trust/learning are fundamental to everyone’s success.

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At it’s core, trust has two aspects:
1.    Relationships – trust is all about developing strong relationships.
2.    Longevity – trust is also in it for the long-term.

What learning is all about is making sure we don’t continue to make the same mistakes with those all important relationships in our lives. Let’s face it, we’ve all made mistakes with relationships. Learning also has another sense to it that many people don’t consider……and that’s humility.

Empowerment

When you are truly trying to learn and strengthen your relationships you’re not worried about whether you are right. What you are seeking is understanding and this often requires that you suspend your own opinions in order to understand the other persons point of view.

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Saturday Musings – The Strength of Enlightenment

Becoming enlightened is that “aha” moment when the penny drops as you perceive something that you were not aware of before. It’s often the power of these enlightened moments that drive innovation and entrepreneurship as individuals gain a glimpse of what could be rather than what is. So how do you become enlightened?

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On the "Life Principles" diagram that I have been sharing with you over the past weeks enlightenment is the relationship between the truth and learning. You can not have enlightenment unless you are open to both these characteristics.

Enlightenment

For example, at the core of the scientific method is the quest for truth. A scientist will not achieve enlightenment in their field of studies if they refuse to face what their data is showing them.

There’s a problem with this position though….we view the truth through our own set of filters. This means, one person may look at the data and see one thing and another person see something completely different. Does this mean the first person is wrong? Not at all……and this is where learning comes into play.

Learning is the foil to truth that provides the check and opens us up to the idea that there may be other answers to the problem we are trying to solve. Learning is all about possibilities and it acknowledges the fact that everyone can potentially contribute to the issue at hand.

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Saturday Musings – Developing Strong Relationships

I wanted to continue the series I’ve been writing about on what it means to conduct your life through principles. I hope you appreciate and value the openness of which I’m sharing and that you receive a benefit for your own life from reading these articles.

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The previous articles in the series can be accessed from the following links:
Three Vital Aspects of the Truth
How to Develop Trust
The Power in a Learning Mindset
It’s All About Character

In this article I would like to start exploring the relationships between the three underpinning principles. If you wish to build strong relationships with others, then there is no better way of doing it by conducting yourself under the guidance of the principles of truth and trust.

Strong Relationships

Too many people expect to have great marriages and wonderful relationships with their children while conducting themselves in a manner that is contrary to a positive outcome. The key that unlocks the power of truth and trust is consistency.

I remember many years ago I had a disaster in one of my businesses. I ended up leaving to go to work at 5am and getting home at around 9pm each night. Our son Timothy was around eight years old at the time and one of his chores was to set the table for dinner each night.We’d talk on the phone and he used to ask me if I’d be home for dinner. Of course, I told him, “Yes”. The reality was that I didn’t make it and was inevitably caught up in all the things at work. Eventually he learned and stopped asking me the question.

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Saturday Musings – It’s All About Character

Over the last few weeks I’ve been unpacking the traits of truth, trust and learning and how they’ve helped me in my own personal relationships. A good way of thinking about the principles is as the three points of a triangle. In this article I’m going to explore what is in the centre of all of us…..our character.

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Many people confuse doing good as their character. Doing good is the result of good character and NOT character in itself. What is character? One dictionary defines good character as:

“The stable and distinctive qualities built into an individual’s life which determine his or her response regardless of circumstances.”


A stable person often has a set of values that form the bedrock of their life. These values determine how they interact with others and how they respond to circumstances. Notice, that I haven’t made a judgement call on what the values are.

Some people have a value of selfishness that results in every interaction they have being focused on benefiting them. From their perspective life is all about accumulating more rather than giving out.

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Rawgi
I can't really say when I developed my Character, but it was at an early age. I choose to help others deal with stressful situat... Read More
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