Rotary Club of Plimmerton
David Pine gave us the Viewpoint tonight.
He said, 'We succeed or fail in this life through the quality of our relationships with other people. I’d like to talk to you this evening about relationships.
'Through my work in insurance, I’ve been privileged to attend several international conferences and to hear some of the best speakers on the planet. They’ve motivated and inspired me to be the best I can be and to have the best relationships with others that I can possibly have.
'One conference speaker who really stood out for me wasn’t a household name, and he wasn’t in a well-known occupation. In fact, he was a professional rock climber - one of these people who just loves to climb vertical cliffs. Scary stuff.
'He illustrated his presentation with lots of photos and video clips. At one point he said':
“So, you’re on the rock face. You’ve got your two footholds, and your two handholds. Next, you have to reach up for another handhold. But to make any meaningful progress – to be any good as a rock climber – you have to let go of one of your footholds so that you can reach higher up for your next handhold.”
'We were all a bit stunned by this, imagining this guy and his friends reaching up, being supported by only one handhold and one foothold. And then he made a very interesting comment':
“Applying this idea to life in general, you could say that in order for you to reach for something higher up, you must first have the courage to let go of something lower down.”
'From your own personal point of view, if you’re keen to grow as a person, and you can do this no matter what life stage you’re at, you will probably need to let go of some of your habits or beliefs, and replace them with new ones.
'As I mentioned, we all succeed or fail in life through our relationships with other people. Here are three ways in which you could enhance your relationships.
- Thinking about your friendships with others, are these relationships balanced? By that I mean: do you listen to each other equally, or is the friendship biased towards one of you, with one of you doing most of the talking, and the other mainly listening?
- Do your friends and you really empathise with one another – do you try your best to see your friend’s point of view through their eyes, and do your friends do their best to see you as though they were looking through your eyes?
- Are any of your friends negative towards you or towards other people? If they are, then perhaps you need to make a decision about how you will deal with this situation. Negative people are best avoided altogether if you want to reach for something higher up.
'By addressing matters like these, we can all grow and develop towards being the best we can be'.
“In order for you to reach for something higher up, you must first have the courage to let go of something lower down.”