Well you know me – I like to start the New Year with a bang and what better way to grab your attention at the start of this new decade than talking about something properly controversial this week.
Two controversial subjects actually – Religion AND women reigning supreme!
Have I caught your curiosity yet? Have your ears pricked up and eyes opened wide at what might follow? If so, read on….
Although I’m not a Buddhist, I do follow the Dalai Lama closely – I love his attitude to life and love and life everlasting and I’m in awe of his spirituality and humility, which he gives in abundance, both freely and without judgement or bias. I’m also a big fan of women and, although I’m not gay, I especially love strong, feisty women who stand tall and proud for what they believe in, committed to their cause and relentless in their quest to be the very best.
I’m so blessed to know so many of these awesome females personally – and even those I can’t admit to knowing personally as such, I still feel an intimate connection with (Mary Portas and Deborah Meaden being 2 such women) having spent time in their company at recent EC events and benefitting from their female worldly wisdom, generosity of spirit and their kindness.
Tie the two controversial topics together and you’ve got the most brilliant article ever to be produced (by a woman) – inspirational speaker, author and entrepreneur, Danielle LaPorte writing in last month’s Lion’s Roar (www.lionsroar.com) about her meeting with the Dalai Lama, quizzing him about the dilemma of Generation X’ers and asking His Holiness what message he had for those of this generation. In summary, he said “In the West, you have education. This is good. You have technology. This is good. But you do not educate your people in values of the heart, of compassion. This you must do”
The Dalai Lama went on to say;
“It does not matter whether you are Buddhist or Christian. Compassion lives in the heart, beyond religion. Even me, a Buddhist, can say that you do not need Buddhism.
All you need is the compassion of the heart.
Women know this because peace is implicit in women.
You put boys together, they make war.
You put women together, they make peace.
Women are the leaders of the future”
Yeh, rock on His Holiness – girl power and all that jazz!
Seriously though, we all have a lot to learn from his message, whether we’re male OR female. Our ability to build rapport and empathy and trust with others – in business and life – has never been so necessary than in this new decade.
Emotional Intelligence is the new kid on the block and we’d ALL do well to increase our EQ levels in 2020 if we are to build more harmonious, peaceful, long-lasting relationships (both at work and play) in order to achieve the win-win.
This week then, why not take a leaf out of Mary Portas’s new book and ‘Work (More) Like A Woman’?
Until next time… keep FIT!
