Tag: empathy

Leaving a legacy

Posted on by philipdodson

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Olympic games have to build in legacy.

Like so many corporate strategies, it’s hollow and manipulative.

Even the dictionary definition immediately jumps to define it as ‘an amount of money or property left to someone in a will’.

Legacy is what we leave behind with people other than the shallow shit of money and property.

It is the activities, kindness, love, companionship, empathy, support, and help. It is the time we have given to do these things with others.

This is then left as memories etched in people’s minds forever.

Leaving a legacy is not about achievement, money or stuff, it’s about the simple human stuff that makes us and others happy.

It’s often the small things that make a huge difference.

Don’t ponder for a lifetime how you will leave your legacy, it is simple, start now. Be kind, love, help and empathise with yourself and others.

This is what you leave after you have gone, this is what the people who matter will remember and cherish.

The power of openness

Posted on by philipdodson

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Allowing ourselves to be open to different views, to our emotions and to other people gives us a power that once you discover it will make going back to being a closed person impossible.

We limit ourselves in life in so many ways by what we tell ourselves about ourselves, closing our minds to other possibilities. Driven by fear we’d rather close ourselves from anything challenging too. Anything that involves feeling vulnerable.

The biggest one is closing off to our emotions and we more often than not bury them and force them down. The only outcome of that is we then burst out at others and ourselves, we lash out, overreact and cause more emotional turmoil.

We are taught that no good comes from emotions, where in fact everything that matters in life is about our emotions, the things that touch our hearts and souls.

We flourish by learning to be open to our emotions, lean into them as Brene Brown says, to share them with the people who matter and respond to others with empathy. When we learn to open our mind to others, new ideas and most importantly of all, to allow ourselves to be open to the real person inside us, then we realise and believe that we can be who we want to be.

Being open is a question of practice, but as we learn we realise what an amazing new world there is beyond our blinkers and the possibilities are endless.

The other thing is to help the people who matter to us to become open by not being judgemental or critical, by listening and empathising.