Just around the corner in our household are results days - our two eldest are waiting on A Level and GCSE results.
It took me back to my results day for my GCSEs.
For my English Literature, one of the texts we read was To Kill a Mockingbird.
I came across this quote from it today:
“People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for”
There is so much truth about human beings in that one sentence.
It’s about how we place ourselves at the centre of world and can struggle to understand perspectives which are not of our own.
How we look to confirm what we already know rather than seek out things which challenge us.
I’m sure I didn’t fully understand this back then in 1988.
So much of my working life has taken me down the path of humility and truly learning to listen and understand the perspective of others.
My advice for my children, for myself on a daily basis and for anyone, is to be more aware of our own biases, to get comfortable being uncomfortable and to seek out different views.
Ray Dalio eloquently puts it:
'Everything changed when I went from saying “I’m right” to “How do I know I’m right?”'
Being human means we all too often forget things we know and sometimes the gentlest reminder can nudge us back.
Book Release Coming Soon...
For the past year, I’ve been head down on the keyboard shaping ideas and thoughts for my next book.
In the coming weeks I’m incredibly excited to be sharing more details as we get ready for publication.
Of the three books I’ve written, it’s the one I’ve most enjoyed writing.
Getting a D in my English Literature GCSE feels like a distant memory thankfully!