Connecting… To others, feel connected and welcome. The basics of human existence, the basic needs and sorrows and joys.
Knowing about them inside yourself makes your ‘heart’ ‘clairvoyant’: You start to see the other’s pain, their joys, their sorrows, you understand – and you can relate to them in new ways – and find new solutions to old problems.
People are like icebergs, rarely is everything visible at once. It’s a fact that we all know to be true, at least more or less: Especially in business, it’s a common idea that one should be always competent, never make mistakes…, always be fit and never lack enthusiasm. Perhaps even smile, if you can, to show that you are happy.
That means many people, even if half-consciously, behave that way; because we learn early in life from our surroundings, namely parents, family, friends and later kindergarten and school, and so on.
But sometimes people start realizing at some point that there is “more to it than meets the eye”.
Human beings have fine sensors especially as children about what is accepted behaviour and what is not. Therefore starting with early childhood they adapt to what is expected. Thus culture and personal background are decisive aspects of what makes for the personality you meet one day around your workplace. And the personality you are.
The hidden emotions and less accepted tendencies, a yearning, to fulfill an inner need for something else – love perhaps, passion, adventure – can be strong. The self-control usually is too.
Looking Beyond the Image
If we take into account that any culture in this world imposes limitations on people’s behaviour which are basics for that self-control preventing them from speaking up – we will start to be able to look beyond the image. Relate to the true human being behind the business personality.
Daniel Goleman in his bestselling book called it “EQ”: Emotional Intelligence, the ability to realize the emotional side to any human thought and reaction. He states it clearly that science did eventually prove what has been part of literature, music and stories for as long as mankind exists:
Emotions are the basics and central. Without them we become incapable to decide – anything.
That’s how heart and brain are connected – in a nutshell.
Statistics show too that 1 among a 100 people will speak up or contact someone when they have a problem or an issue. Therefore, looking at the small numbers in this respect can be crucial.
That’s why I use this blog to post about perhaps unusual subjects – to some of my readers. In the hopes that one or the other of them finds realization and perhaps even consolation in the fact that they are not alone with those thoughts, ideas or puzzles of human existence.
Understanding our emotions and relate to others better that way, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry put this way in “The Little Prince”:
“Here is my secret. It is very simple: you only truly see with your heart.
What is essential is invisible to the eyes.”
(Reused my own material from previous posts.)