Meet Others EYE to EYE
One Saturday afternoon, a mother took her son to practice learning how to ride his bike. He had tried and failed and even given up. His mother reinforced that with enough practice he would soon learn. One day while riding he fell. He hurt not only his hand but his pride. His mother knelt and bandaged his hand. She looked him eye to eye and told him, with a smile as warm as the sun, “try again.”
Life’s obstacles for each of us are different. What one might find difficult another may pass with ease. A leveled approach is needed for each situation no matter where that level may be. In most cases, the most vital lessons are learned on the most basic levels that teach core values and character building. These instill lasting impressions on us, guiding us through the different experiences.
Just as like adults have to bend down and come to eye level when effectively communicating with children. We too must humble ourselves enough to understand how to effectively communicate with others so that lessons can be learned.
“Listen to what is said, not how it is said.”
It’s true in most cases great advice is never received as such because of how it is delivered. Many people get caught up in the fact of how something is said. No one owes you anything. Not to be nice, not to talk nice, and most certainly not to provide advice that is to help your betterment in trying times in your life. If you get caught up in how someone is talking to you and never take the time to listen to the potential lesson to be gained you do a disservice to yourself. You cheat yourself and allow pride to get in the way of valuable information.
Learning how to take important bits of information despite how it’s delivered will carry you further in life than you ever expected. You remove yourself from the center and realize that each piece of information you receive is to benefit another raising the bar each time for the advancement of those coming behind you.
We have to be understanding that not everyone is in the same mental, physical, and emotional space to learn certain lessons. Instead of abandoning them all together as hopeless cases, we must meet them at the level at which they are at. Only then can we see tremendous growth within their personality, habits, and ambitions. Concepts we thought they would never take hold of now are second nature. Meeting people eye to eye encourages a growth mindset that will transform their thought process and perception. Allowing them to evolve their thinking on a higher plain creating their best selves.
In the same way, sharing these important bits of information is a task within itself at times. We all can recall someone much older sharing a “back in my day” story in which we in most cases lose interest. Not seeing how these stories not only apply but will benefit us we rarely take the time to gain knowledge from a situation that someone had to suffer to through to learn.
Not every lesson we learn requires us to struggle. It does require sacrifice, of our time, ambitions, and pride. What are you willing to sacrifice to gain more knowledge that will assist you on your journey of reaching your high aspirations of life to fulfill your purpose?
Eye to eye is a mutual understanding. That you are willing to do whatever to see a task to completion. It requires humility, sacrifice, resilience, perseverance, and perspective.
Perspective is everything. It is a lens that allows you to see a whole new world gaining an understanding that only the unafraid are willing to embrace. For those who become students of perspective, you take into account the greatest human emotion of empathy. Allowing yourself not only sympathize but to recognize their struggles, to not write people off but to get to understand what it is like to walk in their shoes.
Too often we think we have it figured out. We realize much later, how ignorant we are to situations. How do we increase our perspective? By listening to listen and not listening to respond. By asking more questions than providing our own opinions. By seeing things through the eyes of those who struggle with these impossible tasks daily. By doing this, we begin to train our minds to meet others eye to eye.
