Our Collective Awesome
I love people who are different. People who do things differently, learn differently and are diverse in their thinking. I have always thought that being the same is a shame!
Finding people who are “like us” can be both comforting and affirming but learning about people’s differences is one of my favourite things.
Believe it or not, I am very similar to Einstein! He famously said, “I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious.”
I have always been passionately curious- my kids call it nosey about people. I want to know how they tick, why they do the things that they do, what motivates them and what frustrates them!
Humans are excellent at assuming. We live in a world where we often make ourselves right and make others wrong. Most of us were raised in homes where people who weren’t like us were made out to be unsafe. There is judgement everywhere! Not enough, too much, too lazy, too difficult.
Finding out we are different can be a shock- one of my children recently diagnosed with ADHD said, “Mum I didn’t know there was anything wrong with me, why didn’t you tell me?” “There is nothing wrong with you!” I replied. “Your brain is an amazing magical playground! It’s what makes you awesome.”
My favourite definition of ADHD is ‘that you find easy things hard and hard things easy!’ Seemingly simple things like being on time, staying present in a meeting, finishing things you start and putting things back where they belong are impossible!
But leaping into things that others doubt, coming up with life-changing ideas, creating solutions, being calm in emergencies, having high-powered intuition and people-reading skills are all the plus sides!
This has been my whole life! If things don’t interest me, I can’t start it and if something does interest me, I can’t stop it!!!
My friend has a son who is intellectually disabled- she was explaining this to someone in a meeting we were in. She said my son has some ‘special needs’. The man we were meeting with instantly responded with, “What’s his specialty?”
It was such a lovely response. She went on to talk about all the things that captivated her son and delighted all the people around them.
We all have specialties, we all have challenges. When we focus on our specialties, we add more value to the world. Instead of making ourselves wrong for all the shit we can’t do, we need to celebrate ourselves for what we are strong at.
I would like to ban the word normal. Taking time to consider that all the things you think are normal may not be for other people. In some families, going to University, playing team sports, or reading books is normal. We cannot assume this is the case for everyone.
When we ask instead of assume we learn. I love the saying that the word assume breaks down to read “ass” out of ‘u’ and ‘me’.
Ask people what is normal for them. I had a friend growing up who lived in a big house with central heating. We used to lie on the floor vents in the winter and watch TV.
I had another friend with no TV. When they were cold, they opened the oven door and sat around telling stories. Two very different normals!
Look for what is special about people. Notice and acknowledge them.
When we surround ourselves with difference, we get better.
When everyone contributes their specialty, we are collectively more.
Like an orchestra in perfect harmony. Everyone doing their thing, whatever their thing is and together music is made.
Reminds me of a gorgeous song released in 1971 by The New Seekers it starts with “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.”