Be The Change …

This is my last blog of 2011 and I’ve been thinking about it for weeks, a few ideas humming away in some corner of my brain. It was almost delivered to you last week, but another idea surfaced and practically wrote itself in minutes. Writing is like that sometimes – part inspiration and part luck.

The delay was ideal though because this past Friday while attending the Christmas fête at the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia Writers’ Federation of Nova ScotiaI had a wonderful conversation with Heidi Hallett of wordbird. She was sharing with me her regret that people don’t pick up the phone more often, that we are losing a valuable form of communication not just in business but within families and between friends. (Of course I agreed with her!) She went on to say that in the New Year she’s going to have a week of no email, that she might even set up an auto responder encouraging people to call her instead. I love that … and it fits in perfectly with my year-end thoughts.

Mahatma Gandhi once said “Be the change you want to see in the world.” This phrase is one of my life’s mantras. It is powerful on so many levels.

One of them is in our business life and Heidi’s a good example. She wants to talk to her clients, have conversations that inspire a level of creativity and intimacy not available to us in email. So … she’s going to be the change she wants to see. I hope she’ll share with us the results of her efforts.

And another business associate of mine, Peter Skakum of Tangent Strategies, believes we need to completely change how we sell, how we get our message out to our potential customers. And he practices what he preaches. While I don’t necessarily agree with him 100% of the time, I do admire him. In fact, he and I are planning a public debate in the New Year, each of us championing what we believe. It’s tentatively titled “Should We Abolish the Cold Call” and I’ll keep you informed of the when and where of what promises to be a fun event.

But the power of Gandhi’s words go far beyond our businesses, careers and families. Take a moment right now to imagine what the world would be like if we all “lived the change”. I think it could be amazing!

I want to encourage all of us to embrace Gandhi’s words this year. Do you want the world to contain more compassion? Be more compassionate. Do you wish people were less harried and stressed? Be less harried and stressed. Do you want others to be less judgemental? Then judge less.

 

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