Never lose your sense of wonder, or in other words

The following is the original and the rewrite can be found by clicking here.

... never lose your sense of feeling surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable. I was reminded of this a couple of days ago when I found myself exploring the local aquarium.

Being a land dwelling biped by definition anything under the sea is foreign, as well as curious, fascinating, different and worthy of any and all attention; if only for the astonishing way oxygen is extracted from the water to breathe. With all this wonder in front of me, as incredulous as it may seem, I actually became weary of it all... rather quickly.

Big fish, little fish, fat fish, skinny fish, flat fish, fish with teeth, fish without teeth... hey look, a shark, and another, and another; it seemed I had seen it all before - I WAS BORED. As if the universe sensed my impertinence, I turned a corner and was introduced to Chrysaora quinquecirrha. What I saw were dozens of them floating in the currents of their tank, backlit in blue. I simply stared in WONDER - And shortly after that, a small wave of humiliation washed over me.

Chrysaora quinquecirrha*

My wonder, particularly after watching a Chrysaora quinquecirrha find its way (with an awesome soundtrack added*) should be obvious, but perhaps not the reason for my humiliation - Simply stated, this small creature put me to shame for my ARROGANCE in believing I had seen it all before, knew it all, and simply wasn't savouring this amazing experience we call the human condition - I was reminded that having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance, knowledge or abilities is limiting.

It limits you with regard to - 

• stretching yourself and understanding more.
• seeing things you have not seen before.
• experiencing new things.
• moving beyond your comfort zone.
• connecting with people who look at the world differently.
• self reflection.
• experiencing the human condition to the fullest.

So with my newly minted Chrysaora quinquecirrha video, I am forever reminded to "Never lose my sense of wonder", as well as appreciate and savour the moments that come my way.

iamgpe  

* The sound track to the Chrysaora quinquecirrha is performed by The Mediaeval Baebes - Blow Northern Wind from the album The Rose.

The self-sabotage that comes with arrogance.

The following is the original and the rewrite can be found by clicking here.

I know people who, without a smirk or a twinkle in their eye, have told me that their arrogance was a positive quality*; I have coached people, who although did not openly admit it, portrayed every quality that comes with the word. I will stress that am not talking about those people who have a healthy confidence in their abilities, their potential or use personal drive as a measure of their success, but rather those people, that in an insulting way believe they are better, smarter, or more important than other people.

I was in a coaching and development conversation one time and asked, "Why are you sabotaging yourself?"

To that he replied, "What do you mean?"

I told him his arrogance and self-righteousness was palpable, particularly in meetings and there were considerations that came with it. I went on to point out why I saw it as self-sabotage:

• With so little experience and nothing truly proven, he was compromising his credibility; I went on to suggest there is a big difference between believing you can do something and actually doing it. I finally pointed out that "on paper" he was the same as everyone else on the team, and his position of being better had no "data" to back it up. (As they say, "In god we trust, everyone else bring data.")
• His unfounded arrogance impacted his ability to work with other members of the team and only with teamwork would he be effective in his current position. With his current behaviour of dismissing others, he was limiting his ability to learn essential skills involving teamwork, learning and "playing well" with others.
• The dynamic he was creating on the team with his behaviour was causing friction and making it difficult for the team to meet its objectives; this was impacting how management was looking at him.
• Looking at the world through the "rose coloured glasses of arrogance" would impact his ability to self reflect and understand development opportunities for his future success.
• Although he did have potential and would ultimately could be very effective, I pointed out that my experience was that at any given moment there is always someone smarter, more successful, more talented, richer, etc - Arrogance is a wasted and destructive endeavour.

It turned out to be a great conversation because in the end, as arrogant as he was... he was smarter.

gpe 

* In all the years I have been coaching, training or developing sales and marketing people, I have never seen "arrogance" defined as a competency; I will go out on a limb here and say arrogance is not a positive quality.