Snowflakes

I hear a lot about the Millenial generation and they are usually this way and that way. I hear quite a bit about Generation X and how they are the other way and do this thing normally. Then there are those who don’t fit into either category and they are this hybrid generation called Millenial Xer’s. And then I hear about the Baby Boomers and what it means for them to fade from majority to minority. Then everyone has an opinion on the statistics and history of the Silent Generation and how they did this right or that wrong and how it has left us all better or worse off than before.

The more we talk about it, the more we measure it, the more we press into classifying the generations, the more different we all seem.

When I talk to anyone identifying with any of these generations, they don’t carry enough of the identifiers for me to classify them. They might be born in 1991 but carry the opinions and ideas of someone born in 1967. The more I get to know people who fall into all these labels, the more I see people.

Sure these people use a smartphone more and those people do not use a smartphone very much. But they are still people. They breath air, eat food, and sleep, just like I do. The more of them I treat them like people. The fewer differences I have with them.

The less I focus on our supposed differences and classifications, the better I feel and the more friends I make.

Who are you classifying before you get to know them? Where are you making assumptions about people you do not know? Where are you meeting a stereotype, not meeting a person? Where else are you classifying and measuring the differences of people before you meet the people?

Love the post? Please share it on Facebook or support me on Patreon

Desert of Experiences

When I look at successful people, I just get plain overwhelmed sometimes. I see all the ways they shine and just cannot even fathom getting to their station or place in life. Whether it is how many years they have worked for a particular company, the size and success of the company they lead, the number of people they lead, or quite simply the quality of their lives.

I get lost in all the details of how well they have done for themselves and how they are in such a good spot. Like an inexperienced traveler on foot overlooking the Sahara Desert. I cannot comprehend how I could ever do the same thing.

I look at this Sahara desert and forget the desert is made up of grains of sand.

I forget that each grain of sand came from somewhere.

They were not born as the Sahara Desert.

It was a lifetime each little grain of sand being chipped away from stones that made them into the mighty desert they became. I forget my own life will not be born into the Sahara overnight. It will only be through the passage of time wearing away each grain of experience into the desert of my own life that I will ever be anything like the people I admire and respect.

Grainy,

–JT

Love the post? Please share it on Facebook or support me on Patreon