Have you ever felt that you are different from everyone else? That you don’t want to follow the crowd or be like a sheep? That maybe you have your own individual quirky ideas and they are far from what your peer group are thinking and doing?
Well maybe you come from a cohort of people who want to make the world a better place. That you would like to do things a bit differently than those who have been before you.
Being a good communicator is a great gift especially if you are trying to make a change. Those of you who know me, know that I have a great belief about the people in our world that are different, with learning differences especially and look different too, very much are different, because they are enlightened beings, here to teach us lots of lessons.
You know my guy with down syndrome, well one lesson that he has taught me is patience is indeed a virtue one that I did not possess until he came into our family.
I operated in my male energy quite a lot when I was rearing my now adult children and everything was like the army, a place for everything and a thing for every place, with no exceptions.
The ability to change and be more flexible, softer, and bring in the female energy, has brought a lot more happiness into my life than I ever thought possible.
How did all this come about? Well, it began with not getting the result out for the effort put in.
What do I mean? Doing things for other people because I thought I was being charitable and kind, as that was what I was brought up to do, but actually I was trying to fulfil the need to be needed or the need to be loved, a direct hit from childhood, being the child of perfectionist parents!
While having a high standard for me will never change, I have changed how I achieve that now. The need to be perfect has faded into the background, when I realised it was driven by the fear of not being good enough, I did some work around that and being perfect is not that important anymore. One of my cousins told me that as he has grown older, he continues to redefine perfect! I like that one, it works really well for me too!
But in my teaching practice, I always give the best that I can. Teaching is a very responsible role, especially in the health and well being world. Vulnerable people hang on your every word, so it is vital that this is taken into consideration when preparing lessons, so the participant gets the correct information every time. After that, whatever they do with the information is entirely up to them.
I was never fearful around other people taking my notes, or using my information, but there are many in my profession who are. The willingness to share, for me is an essential part of education of any kind. I always felt that if sometime took my notes and used them as theirs, at least the information was correct. If you use someone else’s ‘stuff’ without acknowledgement it will come around and be found out. That never worried me, and still doesn’t, as I believe there is plenty of room for all of us.
However, the message is in the giving not in the worry about how it will be received. That goes across the board about everything.
Dare to be different? Why not, now more than ever, we need the ‘different’ people of this world to stand up and be counted.
Happy New Different Year.
