I had lunch yesterday with Jenne' - it was a great lunch.
Talking to Jenne' is fun for many reasons. She is a good friend, she is smart, and she makes me think. I've had some challenging opportunities lately that are fun and frustrating at the same time. She helped me work the problem out through a series of questions and listening.
The journey lead me to something that everyone needs to remember whenever they interact with another human being. Whether they show it or not - people need to believe that they are significant.
This is hard for me because I was raised on football, wrestling, track & field, ultimate fighting and anything else you can imagine that involves physical strength and contact. In retrospect those activities were easy.
Using empathy to see through the eyes of another to understand what is significant to that individual is very hard.
Approaching people from this perspective is challenging and provides me with a much deeper level of satisfaction in my personal and professional life. I am not perfect and certainly don't bat 1,000 but I keep swinging.
Do you understand what I am saying?