That’s easy to say when you’re in a group that’s doing most of the offending.
It’s harder to be someone who must constantly shore up his defenses to take offense without suffering harm.
Inevitably the latter leads to a reaction against the offenders. Because people want things to change. For their children and the rest of posterity.
“No offense, but…” means someone’s about to be offended.
For more daily musings like this, subscribe below.
Time for a math lesson! Bear with me—it matters.
The Transitive Property of Mathematics says this: for all real numbers x, y, and z, if x=y and y=z, then x=z also.
That makes sense, right?
Why am I telling you this? Because this same mathematical property affects all outcomes you experience in life.
Think about it: how you see an aspect of reality affects how you behave. How you behave affects the results you get. Therefore, how you see things affects the results you get. X=Y and Y=Z, so X=Z as well.
Dr. Stephen R. Covey called this the “See-Do-Get Continuum.” How we see the world affects what we do, which affects what we get in life. (You can learn all about it in his monumental work The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.)
Covey likes to say, “How we see the problem is the problem.” In this case, “seeing” could also translate into “believing.”
Here’s an example:
Let’s say you’re a manager and you’ve recently had a few millennials added to your team. If you believe all millennials are lazy and entitled, you’re going to treat them as such. This will so alienate them and undermine your relationship that pretty soon, they’ll start acting out.
Most likely they’ll rebel against you by doing the bare minimum, scraping by because in their minds nothing they do will be good enough to please you anyway. Why should they put out more effort than necessary?
How you saw them affected your behavior towards them, which affected how they behaved (your results). It’s the Pygmalion Effect, a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Can you see how this continuum affects us when it come to things like race, gender, or religion? Our beliefs shape our actions; our actions shape our outcomes.
So what’s the bottom line?
If you want to change the world—or maybe just your situation in it—start first by changing your beliefs. Work first on how you see things.
Don’t forget to subscribe!
Nathan's Blog 