Tabitha A. Scott's Blog

Use these 3 steps in your year-end review to get the job you want! 

A recent Gallup study showed 85% of Americans are unhappy in their jobs. They want to try something else but are paralyzed at the thought of the unknown or losing the security they have now. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Following your passion to land a fulfilling role doesn’t have to be done in one fell swoop, with your entire livelihood hanging in the balance. Stop cruising passively through the daily drudgery and start driving purposefully towards the career of your dreams with these 3 simple steps. 

1. Listen to your intuition to discover your passion. Many ultra-successful billionaires attribute their success to intuition, like Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, and Elon Musk. Recent studies released in the Harvard Business Review also show that following our passion increases the likelihood of success. This connection to intuition can make you happier in your current job or identify where to look for the next one. 

Most people overthink tapping into their intuition, becoming frustrated that they cannot “hear” it. They try to identify an impeccable career choice to satisfy them for a lifetime. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, however, shows the average time in a job today is only 4.6 years—3.2 years if you’re under 35 years old. So, stop worrying about finding the “perfect” solution and start paying attention to the way you feel about each aspect of your current job. 

To discover direction from your intuition, notice the tasks that feel good. What are you doing when you catch yourself subconsciously humming or smiling? What brings on a burst of anticipation or excitement?  It could be an idea, an activity, mentoring others, a special interest, or even taking a break. This intentional act of identifying what inspires you refocuses your energy on things you’re passionate about and shifts you from passively cruising along into actively noticing your surroundings. 

2. Set a waypoint. Studies show people don’t take the risk of changing their current role because they fear the unknown. They are trapped by pleasing, perfection, and playing the game…You should make sure the new job doesn’t end up being worse. You should be young enough, should be experienced enough, and should be current on all the latest technologies. I call those fears the Should Monster, and when we give into it, we end up “shoulding” on ourselves instead of moving forward. 

Mitigate fears by setting waypoints at your pace. A waypoint is a stopping point along a journey, and it gives you a short-term way to follow your intuition while leading towards a more desirable destination. Perhaps start with one each month, then increase to one each week over time and with clarity. One way I used waypoints in my career is to leverage weekly “touch base” meetings, the monthly update process, or semi-annual job reviews as an opportunity to ask for more of what energized me. 

Your role doesn’t have a formalized meeting or update process outside of year end reviews? Most of mine didn’t either, so I invented them. I’ve yet to meet a leader who didn’t appreciate a relevant, concise update. Updates became opportunities to weave in and ask to do more of the fulfilling activities over time. Changing direction, even a few degrees at a time, can point you towards an entirely different destination over a career. 

3. Take the risk! I often ask this question when making decisions that involve risk, What’s the worst thing that can happen? It was typically something like upsetting my boss, losing a job, or looking stupid. It also worked well with listening to my intuition—If I follow what this illogical feeling is telling me, what’s the worst thing that can happen? 

It takes a lot of courage to believe in yourself, to stand up for your own needs and wants, and to believe that you have the power to shape the future you want. But ask yourself, “What’s the worst thing that can happen if I start setting waypoints and learning from them?” Remember rejection of our ideas helps us reach our goals because it shows us what doesn’t work, allowing us to redirect focus to other possible alternatives. Viewing failure as a positive, natural part of progress, rather than something negative, is a powerful way of getting closer to happiness. 

For example, one role I had was managing utilities for a portfolio of homes. For the most part, it was pretty dull. I felt jazzed up, however, each time I learned about solar power. I began studying it in earnest, after putting the kids to bed at night, to learn how it may help my employer. Instead of leaping into an entirely different role, I used monthly updates as waypoints to weave in new ideas and benefits about trying it on our homes. Over time, through a series of these waypoints, I learned a lot about how solar could make our company more profitable. It took years to get our first solar development, and during that time my role shifted away from utility billing and towards renewables—a job about which I felt passionate. 

Get out of the passenger seat on your commute and take off the cruise control. It’s time to actively navigate towards a career you’re passionate about by listening to your intuition, learning from the waypoints, and driving full speed ahead. 

About the Author: Tabitha A. Scott is an international executive, keynote speaker and author of award-winning book, Trust Your Animal Instincts: Recharge Your Life & Ignite Your Power. Tabitha led efforts in creating the world’s largest solar-powered community and was recognized for her work with innovation, technology, and behavior change by the White House. A Kentucky native, she lives in Nashville, TN.

Positive Change That Drives Sustainable Results 

Every company is transforming, and CEOs agree that the pace of change is accelerating by the minute. Smart leaders also realize that people are transforming, too. There’s no debate that 2020 forever changed the way we perceive our jobs and ourselves. But “success” is no longer defined by dollars alone. It has been reimagined as part of something bigger—something meaningful and relevant. 

The future of work will be led by organizations that understand and embrace the tectonic shift from requiring conformity for profits to embracing creativity for purpose. Even big think consultancies are jumping onboard with “Corporate Purpose” and staffing up with sustainably minded cohorts. After working in this space for over 15 years, I think it’s about time the marketplace gets beyond its obsession with short-term profits at the expense of valuing the rich fabric of our humanity. 

Acknowledge the ugly truth. A recent Gallup study showed 85% of Americans are unhappy in their jobs. Recent events inflamed an already skewed work-life balance while unexpected cuts and layoffs further fueled apprehension. Whether workers are feeling like an unappreciated cog in a money machine or living in fear of losing predictable income, this steady drumbeat of anxiety goes beyond burnout. 

Today’s employees are experiencing an emerging crisis of Corporate Traumatic Stress Disorder (CTSD) that negatively impacts innovation, productivity, and personal interactions. Energetically, when people are feeling fear, uncertainty, and other “low vibe” emotions, they can’t engage or perform well. As a result, a mega-movement is afoot to reconnect. People are choosing to buy goods from and work for companies with a powerful purpose. They are defining “success” for themselves—and it goes beyond the dollar to include fulfillment, empowerment, and happiness at work and at home. 

Shed the thinking of the past.  The notion of “work-life balance” is a thing of the past. The well-oiled routine of time-consuming commutes to sit inside a concrete box is becoming less attractive after experiencing more personal and family time during Covid 19. Gartner found that U.S. employees value work-life balance even more than health benefits. 

As a society, our priorities changed during 2020, so leaders need to recognize and alter the aspects of their culture that are making employees feel stressed out, disconnected, or off-balance. Defining the problem may not be that easy, however. According to a recent article in Forbes, 81% of people fake happiness at work. It’s important for executives to understand that employee surveys have limited value because evidence shows workers respond how they think they should, not now they actually feel.  It’s called acquiescence bias and must be considered carefully if seeking a true reflection of culture. 

Tapping into the culture of your company will require independent, qualitative conversations, and a willingness to be vulnerable and authentic. After reconsidering their quality of life—what’s really important—employees are less willing to continue “playing the game”. As a result, they’re exiting the workplace in droves. But, there is hope for corporate culture and there are ways to encourage personal purpose that any company can do. 

Increase happiness by supporting personal purpose. One simple way companies can energize employees is by encouraging each to set a personal goal for the year alongside their standard corporate metrics. Our vibes raise when we’re doing something that makes us happy—we forget to stop and eat, we lose track of time, or perhaps we begin humming subconsciously. Everyone has an activity that brings them joy like that. It could be building a model plane, learning to play an instrument, taking an art class, hiking, training for your first marathon…the list goes on and on. 

Executives have to stop thinking they can prescribe what will make their employees happy—a company picnic, a corporate outing, a tribal shout of the corporate mantra. While those could each be beneficial and fun activities, they aren’t specifically relevant. The key is allowing the freedom for each person to identify something that they are passionate about and brings them joy. Then give each person the flexibility and time to do it. 

I realize this requires trust but isn’t that what we gave employees when they worked from home the last year? Ask yourself—What’s the worst thing that can happen if an employee needs to leave early for guitar lessons twice a week? Or what will happen if someone needs to take extended lunches to train for that marathon three times a week? Is it worth a few hours here and there to truly support happiness? 

Yes. It is! Happy employees are 13% more productive, stay longer in their roles than peers, are more innovative, and produce greater profits. Trust that your team members can and will manage their work-life balance. As each person’s happiness increases, the overall culture will shift. It has been reimagined as part of something bigger—something meaningful and relevant that shapeshifts it into the future of work. With each new goal, each passion project over time, your company undergoes a purposeful transformation. 

About the author: Tabitha A. Scott currently serves as Principal at Southern Growth Studio, residing in Nashville, TN. She was formerly CEO of several successful companies and Senior VP of Sustainability & Innovation at two global organizations. Tabitha is an award-winning international advisor, speaker, and best-selling author of Trust Your Animal Instincts: Recharge Your Life & Ignite Your Power.

In 2019, I attended an Executive Innovation & Strategy course at Harvard. During the course, they taught about the importance of understanding where one's company falls along the “S-Curve” or growth curve. It's a quick way to represent where an organization lies along its growth cycle. All living things, including organizations, go through the same cycle: birth, growth, maturity and decline. 

The trick to sustainability is to leap onto a new growth curve before reaching the end of the decline phase--otherwise, your company won't be agile enough to keep the pace.  We also discussed the model Human Insight uses, the AEM-Cube, to visually map people, teams, and even entire organizations on the S-Curve. 

The AEM-Cube identifies how teams interact and how to get the greatest potential energy from each individual, team and company. Early adopters like Apple, IBM, Phillips, and Heineken have added to the database of over 90K participants worldwide. Here's why it helps make companies more productive and innovative:

Individuals: Identify untapped potential, avoid burnout, choose the right job. Teams: Quickly see gaps or mismatches in leadership. Companies: Discover your innovation culture.

This S-Curve depicts how people are naturally attracted to the unknown. The beginning of the curve represents “exploration”, while the top of the curve represents “optimization”. The team represented by dots below is skewed towards optimization. In other words, it would quickly find efficiencies and safeguard the status quo to protect existing methods. The team is missing, however, members who naturally look to the future for creative solutions. Over time, it would be at high risk of failing without including a more diverse mix of team members. 

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Explorers pioneer and create new ideas, ways and methods. They contribute optimally during the inception and early stages of the growth process. Explorers are willing to take risk. They are constantly seeking new ways of doing things and experience change as an opportunity to experiment. 

Optimizers preserve and safeguard what has been actualized in earlier stages of the growth process. Their contributions are suited best for the later stages on the S-Curve and growth cycle. Optimizers are great at improving processes and finding risk. They value stability and past experiences when faced with new situations. 

Map yourself or your team to identify potential energy, develop talent, improve team dynamics, understand organizational risks and opportunities, align employee strengths with jobs, recruit, and accelerate the innovation process through cognitive diversity and inclusion. 

Email me today to get your own results and map your entire team.

Are you frustrated with the same old routines and demands but feel powerless to jump off the circuit? Do you find yourself feeling tired or unproductive? Try this life hack of gamifying your workday to get moving powerfully again. While we may live in a virtual world, embracing action in a way you enjoy helps ignite your natural sources of energy and wellbeing. Don’t overthink happiness! Just make a quick list of things you enjoy actively doing, then use them as little rewards throughout the day. 

Find motivation, wellness, and balance by gamifying your workday. Here’s how: 

Set mini goals throughout the day. Stop focusing on the entire month, week, or even day—the pace of change moves way too fast for that. Instead, set a goal by mid-morning, another by lunchtime, and a third by mid-afternoon. “I’ll respond to 10 requests before my break, I’ll make that call I’ve been putting off by lunch, and I’ll finish this report by mid-afternoon.”   Use little “rewards” for each success. Keep it simple! A reward could be spending 5 minutes with your pet, playing an instrument, doing a quick stretch routine, watching funny videos, or running around the block. Just choose anything that makes you feel happy. Within a few days, you’ll find yourself becoming more motivated with this gamified workday—looking forward to the next little boost. 

This technique works because science proves doing the things you love raises your energy levels, provides balance, and creates wellness.  The more you practice activities that energize you, the higher vibe you’ll have throughout the day. 

Take the leap off that low vibe hamster wheel of feeling trapped, overwhelmed, or bored and start moving ahead more powerfully!

 

#lifehack #productivity #energize #burnout #boredom #gamify

In today’s ever-changing, fast-paced economy, survival requires doing more with less. It’s no secret that productivity impacts profitability and retention. But increasing efficiency can seem elusive with a newly hybrid remote-and-on-site workforce. One proven way to boost productivity up to 25% is through engagement and inclusion (Dynamic Signal 2020). 

Every team member contributes differently to change. Some are natural catalysts, thriving on the unknown, while others are energized by identifying risk, providing stability to chaos. The key is to identify each person’s maximum contribution point, that place where they feel engaged, included, and happy. Then, make sure they are placed into a role that aligns with and leverages their greatest potential. 

No two team members will contribute in exactly the same way and everyone’s contribution is equally beneficial. Organizations that leverage employee ideas and knowledge meet product revenue targets 46% more often and product launch dates 47% more often than their industry peers. 

Our Powering Potential team worked with a Fortune 200 Company to conduct a blind, real-time experiment with 165 executives in two different regions. First, we placed them in like-type thinking teams and asked them to walk through a productivity planning exercise. Later in the day, we repeated the controlled live experiment, ensuring each team included representation from diverse-type preferences. 

Region 1 scored 40% higher and Region 2 scored 53% higher overall by including cognitive variation. The company’s Senior Director responsible for leadership training noted, “Participants were energized by the productivity exercise as it allowed them to come to the conclusion that a well-balanced, diverse group reaches more impactful decisions in a collaborative environment. I would recommend it as it was fast moving and insightful.” 

Traditional, demographics-based diversity and inclusion is important. And cognitive variation (differences in the way people think) further strengthens the benefits.  Most companies already use traditional cognitive tools such as: Myers-Briggs, DISC, Management by Strengths, the Predictive Index, or others to highlight an employee’s preferences. While these tools increase an employee’s communications ability with peers, they can fall short of improving profitability. 

Newer tools, such as the AEM-cube, which has been adopted in the U.S. by organizations like: IBM, Yahoo, Apple, Stanford and Purdue, maps employee preferences to different phases of the naturally occurring growth curves (Sigmoid “S” curves). This innovative, 3-D model can be used to reflect a team of employees simultaneously, matching talent to need, based upon an organization’s current location on a growth curve. Employees can quickly understand where they contribute most powerfully to stay engaged, included, and happy at work. Employers can identify gaps in contribution types, align strengths with assigned roles, and assure balance to maximize productivity. 

Hear more about innovation and the AEM-Cube in this Video with Human Insights, read about cognitive diversity in this Harvard Business Review article, or contact me for help getting started.

Companies like Amazon, that successfully leap from one “S-Curve” to the next, thrive while those relying on their current business models risk obsolescence (remember Blockbuster?!) The pace of change has accelerated more quickly than our ability to adapt. The amount of technological change that happened in the year 2000 is replicated every 30 seconds today. 

As companies drive 100 mph on the information highway, traditional planning and response times are no longer enough.  Instead of long-term, linear planning, today’s leaders must be nimble enough to respond as chaos occurs (unexpected social media disasters, the pandemic, logistics disruptions…)  

Being agile means staying close to the customer, using small teams that have decision making authority, and ensuring decision-making teams have enough variation. With the complexity of quick decision making comes the need for diversity, and companies need to go beyond gender, race, and age. Cognitive thinking and technological integration are equally powerful forms of diversity. Each team member will have unique strengths and according to countless studies, teams with diverse thinking are more innovative and productive.  A blend of diversity increases the ability to reach revenue targets by 46%. 

While diversity brings the right mix of employees to the table, inclusion makes sure each adds value. Inclusion is the exchange that takes place between people that sit in different seats along the growth curve. Innovators learn from optimizers to reduce risk. Execution-oriented managers get ideas from early adopters. Efficiency-minded leaders can scale and standardize new ideas.  

What does all this mean for your business? One of our Fortune 200 clients leveraged the AEM-Cube, a tool that maps where leaders, teams, and organizations sit along the S-Curve (growth cycle). The company realized its Southern Region leaders were predominately at the top of the curve—they were great at optimizing efficiency and identifying risks. Its Northern Region, however, consisted mostly of those in the early part of the growth cycle—they were energized by new ideas and change. 

During our work together, the company undertook a number of documented ideation processes. We used the AEM-Cube tool to conduct blind studies wherein the first rapid innovation exercises were done in like-type groups (early adopters were together, risk-averse optimizers together etc.) We then arranged teams in a manner that included diverse thinking types, including representation from all parts of the S-Curve. Innovation rose between 19%-39% in each case when teams included different thinking styles. 

It’s a simple process to map your leaders, executive teams, and organizations on the S-Curve. It’s a quick way to visualize whether you’re ready to leap onto the next curve, like Amazon, or plunge from profitability, like Blockbuster. 

Hear more about innovation and the AEM-Cube in this Video with Human Insights, read about cognitive diversity in this Harvard Business Review article, or contact me for help getting started.

Would a centralized blockchain undermine the technology’s purpose as a shared public ledger? Yes, and here’s why… 

Blockchain creates the decentralization of data, the opportunity for transparency, and a trustworthy alternative to becoming too “big”. Big banks, big companies, and big governments create more risk, reduce innovation, and can violate trust.  Centralized blockchain would undermine the technology’s original purpose as a shared societal ledger because it would place too much power within the control of a single entity. 

The energy industry is an example that demonstrates how centralization can increase risks, stifle innovation, and violate trust. Until recent years, energy was, arguably, the most valuable commodity in our economy. Without power, the economy halts—food spoils, production stops, transportation ceases, and we endure heat or cold without protection. While the MVP of the economy has now shifted to data, the energy sector’s centralization provides many potential parallels. 

Creates Risk: Our centralization of energy in Hawaii is an example of risk. Until recent years, 80 percent of Hawaii’s energy was imported palm oil. To defeat Hawaii, no planes needed to drop bombs, they only needed to destroy the fleet of ships carrying oil to the islands. This threat created high risk for our national security, because the centralized source of energy meant there was no significant back-up plan if something disrupted the palm oil supply process. Residents in Hawaii were in danger of losing their most valuable resource and the US overall would be negatively impacted with strategic security risks. 

Similarly, if Blockchain becomes centralized, we risk another “too big to fail” scenario like the banking disaster of recent years. By allowing one entity, or only a select few, to control the system, we create greater risks should failure occur. Distributed systems mitigate risk and provide a check-and-balance approach that keeps the system’s availability and reliability in balance. 

Reduce Innovation: Because traditional, centralized, fossil fuel is such an intricate part of our US economy, it became highly subsidized by the government. Our economy is now dependent on those subsidies, so it would be very difficult for leaders to reduce them. This creates a capitalism trap—without “true costs”, decentralized sources of energy cannot compete effectively. It hinders innovation by skewing the market in favor of the “big system”, and environmentally detrimental methods of the past. 

Changing to true costs of energy now would raise the cost of living significantly—creating the highest negative impact on the poorest Americans. Despite the risks, in 2014, new clean energy goals were established in Hawaii via state law. By creating new legislation that helped to balance the economics of local solutions, innovation prevailed. Decentralized sources of energy sprang up on buildings, in the water, and atop all new homes. These new sources reduced the risks of commodity price hikes and increased energy security for all residents. 

Like this example, if Blockchain becomes too centralized, it will lose its economic innovation. The financial incentives will be driven by a single entity, so competition will be eliminated. Decentralization allows the power of creativity to be placed in the hands of everyone. 

Violates Trust: Centralization of power and money set the stage for potential corruption. Those in control begin to look after their interests, often at the cost of others with differing, or less financially influential, interests. Powerful utility companies are able to commit atrocities that are hidden from the public. Consider the largest utility provider in the US, TVA, had a slurry spill dumping toxic waste into our Tennessee and surrounding area streams that stretched into several counties. The spill was 100 times the size of the Exxon Valdez incident and 10 times the size of the BP spill in the US Gulf. Yet, most Americans never heard of it. 

Centralizing Blockchain will create the same propensity for cover ups, hidden agendas, and a general lack of trust from the public. Having only one entity responsible for the largest data ledger system in the world places too much power under the authority of a single source. 

How could blockchain technology achieve scale while remaining decentralized? 

Blockchain technology can achieve scale while decentralized the same way the computer industry has done so. In 1935, Thomas Watson, president of IBM, stated that the world may have use for up to five computers. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had a different idea, however. They thought if you put the power in the hands of the people, innovation would prevail. And so it has! 

Blockchain is no different. Eventually, we will have the ability to decentralize the system among the Cloud. Contributors may have the prospect for shared ownership and governance. Like a cooperative approach, everyone owns a little and therefore has some accountability and opportunity to innovate as needs and wants change over time.

[image error]“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,” Maya Angelou said that. It makes me think of how being around my Grandma Alma made me feel ... the fearless speedster, soulful cook, joyful gardener. But it wasn’t just her effusive and loving personality, it was something more—her energy. That creative, curious, open-hearted sense of joy radiated out from her little house onto the porch and into the purple irises in the fencerow and the summer gardens we planted and harvested together. 

Alma wasn’t like other grandmas. At 4’11” and around 200 pounds, she looked like an adorable cherubic doll. We once rode an elephant together at Circus World—she showed no fear. She drove a lime-green Vega we called “The Green Fly”, where she typically went way over the speed limit, much to my delight. I made friends with a giant sheepdog, Ralph, across the road from her house in Columbia, Kentucky, and enjoyed doing flips from end to end of her enormous front lawn to entertain rural passersby. Grandma was an incredible cook—beans and cornbread, roast beef, and chocolate fudge were regulars. She always let us have our own little garden spots during the summer that we would plant and tend together. It was the kind of place where dreams were free to grow. 

Alma passed away the summer before my junior year of high school. I’m not sure if it was because of being raised in the Christian faith, or because of my own intuition, but I did not acknowledge her death as an ending, but rather a transition from our physical visits to an ongoing spiritual connectedness. Over the remaining years at home, and throughout adulthood, she remained a steady source of peace and direction. 

I never forgot the joy I felt around her and how it gave me freedom to fantasize about the life I wanted to create. So, when I feel particularly frustrated, I still talk to her, even though she transitioned into a spiritual realm long ago. Her answers usually come in the form of animals—cardinals, snakes, scorpions, monkeys and others. In fact, I’ve just completed a book about the animal answers Grandma has sent to guide my decisions in recent years. 

It may sound a little crazy, but quantum science proves we are all made of energy. Einstein demonstrated that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it just changes forms. Isn’t that what we’ve been taught about life after death, that our energy transitions from this life on earth to something beyond, something wonderful, and yet still accessible? 

I’m grateful for the faith my family taught me as a child and how it’s grown stronger as science reinforces it. As I reflect upon the challenges from 2020, I’m reminded that nothing is final, it is simply another transition. Regardless of the present, the future is bright!

Grateful for this review just in from Midwest Book Review and wanted to share it with you!

Synopsis: If you're struggling to stay positive in this time of Covid, economic distress and social unrest, you're not alone. The pace of change and the nonexistent norm make us feel off-balance, burned out, and disconnected. "Trust Your Animal Instincts: Recharge Your Life & Ignite Your Power" by Tabitha A. Scott reveals how to recharge your life and spark positivity through your own limitless source of power.

Exhausted from the burnout of trying to please everyone, including herself, Tabitha quit her job, gave away most of her belongings, and lived near a remote jungle in Costa Rica. Teetering between the wilderness there and the jungle back home, clarity and freedom emerged, along with a passion to share her insights to help others.

"Trust Your Animal Instincts" covers: Identifying personal insulators, harmful pressures, and negativity leading to burnout; Reconnecting to your intuition for direction and renewed purpose; Defending against energetic attacks and maintain positivity; Learning how to reignite your life and tap into unbridled joy and unconditional love.

Critique: As informative and inspiring as it is 'user friendly' in organization and presentation, "Trust Your Animal Instincts: Recharge Your Life & Ignite Your Power" is a potentially life changing, life enhancing, life celebrating instructional guide and manual. While especially and unreservedly recommended for both community and college/university library Self-Help/Self-Improvement collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Trust Your Animal Instincts: Recharge Your Life & Ignite Your Power" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.99).

https://www.midwestbookreview.com/sbw...

[image error]Eagles are capable of flying in very high altitudes where other birds can only dream of going. Their broad wings, powerful lungs, and tough dispositions prepare them to soar above the rest. One bird, the crow, harasses the eagle. He sits on the eagle’s back and attacks his neck, but the eagle does not respond or fight back. He is clearly more powerful than a crow! But the eagle chooses not to waste his time or energy dealing with the pest; instead, he simply flies higher. 

As the eagle continues to soar upwards, the crow can’t breathe in the high altitude. He grows frustrated that his attack has been ineffective, and eventually, he must let go. 

With our recent election, I’ve witnessed countless attacks in many ways, like social posts, media coverage, emails, and harsh words among friends. While I’m an advocate of sharing beliefs about which we are passionate, I’m not a fan of the negativity and disrespect littered about without concern for the consequences. It’s a real “pain in the neck”! 

One way to handle the attacks is to emulate an eagle. 

What feels right and just for one person is never exactly the same as another because we are unique by birth. Our perspectives, experiences, and beliefs shape who we become. We don’t all need to agree on everything because we are individuals. 

When we look inside, however, we’re all made of the exact same energy! We have no control over the way others treat us, but we have the ability to always choose how we react. I believe the USA is still one of the greatest places on earth to live. I’m proud to be an American and embrace the diverse fabric of my fellow citizens. No matter who ends up in our Administration, or what people are saying to attack the ideals you hold dear, we can choose to fly above our differences. 

Take a lesson from the mighty eagle and stop wasting time with the crows in your life. Soar with love, compassion, and gratitude and the haters will fade away. Up high, the view is much clearer.

Source concept: Five Points Media