I have a set of phrases replay in my head nearly everyday; these phrases, in large part, form the framework for how I live my life and how I work. The commonality among them is that the tone is usually positive, the phrases inspire me and they have integrity.
Ironic, then, that when I think of the various sources of these phrases, I'm somewhat alarmed to remember many of these principles of my life were said by people I don't particularly like.
To my defense, there are good reasons I don't like some of these people: dishonesty, disloyalty. . .and there's one or two that are plain mean. In that dishonest, disloyal or mean person, however. . .there was something of value.
Often we tend to view the world as black and white, bad and good. If something is bad - nothing about that entity, we tend to think, is of value. Or if something is good - then it's all good. (Come to think of it - probably some of the worst pieces of advice I've been given have been given by very good people.)
To totally dismiss anything someone says because we don't like them - whether for valid reason or not - is truly missing a point. Life is full of anomalies; as opposed to being confused by that, we should find grounding in that. To be able to explore other's worlds and thoughts, even if we don't like them, and find things that work for us is a great, unexpected gift.
Life is seldom black and white - all good or all bad. If we choose to believe that high contrast black and white, we miss what makes life interesting. We most often will find our own truth somewhere in the greys.
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My book "Courageous Questions, Confident Leaders" is in digital format from Amazon Kindle.
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