Teamwork
Being Part of Something Bigger Than Yourself
Last Friday, Oct 31 my wife and I went to see one of our favorite movies, “Back To The Future” starring Michael J. Fox (Marty McFly) and Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown). For the uninitiated, it’s about time travel, friendship, teamwork, and love.
The movie was reformatted for IMAX, so you know, COLOSSAL and we felt like we were inside the movie watching the story unfold. We laughed, recited lines, and were moved to tears.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of this wonderful film! Yes, which means it was originally released in 1985. Where does the time go?
In the Time Machine of course!
Treat yourself and go see this movie on the really BIG screen!
The theme for today is teamwork and how being a part of something bigger can be a very rewarding experience filled with camaraderie, a sense of belonging, relationship, and for some people like me, you may even meet your life companion.
Over the course of forty-five years I worked with many amazing people in a variety of companies, and embraced tons of valuable lessons along the way from shared experiences. As a member of many teams I shared knowledge, helped my team mates achieve their goals, supported common business goals, and experienced a number of life events.
The main thing about being with a team is the strong connection that is often created amongst the people. True, there are people who do not know how to forge bonds within a team, and that’s usually due to past experiences that did not bode well. Even in those rare cases, a team can help a mate open up, feel acknowledged and valued.
What I find to be true is being compassionate or deeply caring for people, including myself, is a significant and enabling way of living in the world today.
So, how do we embrace being compassionate?
Is there some magic formula or wizard spell for that?
Actually, it’s easier than you think.
Compassion, quite simply, is a kind and friendly presence when dealing with what’s difficult. The power of compassion connects us with the difficulty and offers an approach that is different from the common act of turning away.
Compassion helps us connect with people, mend relationships, and move forward while enabling emotional intelligence and well-being.
How we do this.
Compassion is closely related to empathy which is about understanding and relating to someone else’s challenges. Compassion is the part of us that naturally wants to offer assistance. Another way of thinking about this is, we are wired (predisposed) to help.
Compassion is limitless, far-reaching, can impact humans, animals, our planet and future generations. It can enrich your life as well as the lives of everyone around you. (1)
Some people are naturally compassionate. They would give the shirt off their backs and buy a meal for someone in need.
Me, not so much. I was a very late adopter so to speak and learned how to be compassionate while connecting with and coaching people while attending two separate Gestalt Method Coaching certification programs.
Adopting self-compassion came later, and I gotta say, was one of the most challenging and totally rewarding things I ever did for myself.
What’s next?
Compassion in the workplace is more important than ever and I’ll write about that next week.
The ending quote for today:
“If My Calculations Are Correct, When This Baby Hits 88 Miles Per Hour, You’re Gonna See Some Serious S***.”
Doc Emmett Brown
C’mon! I had to throw in one quote from Back To The Future.
BTW: Marty and Doc - excellent Team Mates!
Thanks for the read.
Glenn
glenn@harmonysheartcoaching.com
(1) https://psychcentral.com/health/how-to-be-more-compassionate