Beyond Borders: Combining Greater Awareness with Your Singularity.
I am walking in Nature, enjoying the fresh breeze of the pine trees. Suddenly, I can hear vibrant djembes and Kalimba soundscapes in one of my soundtrack lists, bringing me to African memories of a far-off land.
The notes carry joy and high-energy vibes connecting me to my parents and grandparents’ origins. All bring back stories about Mozambique, which my direct family shared with me, as most were born, raised and lived there.
As the melody involves me, I am transported to a place I have never been, but I have travelled through my family stories and video camera records a few times, especially from my dad. Yet, I encountered some of the sounds and similar feelings in Cape Verde, a journey I did in December 2018.
As the soundscapes continue, I visualize the trips to the savannas my dad showed me when I was a kid through those film archives he made in Gorongosa National Park.
The memories from the records start to appear in my mind as a symphony of sounds and visual experiences; the lush green, the mesmerizing colours of the sunrises and sunsets, the cascades, watching the stars at night nearby the tent, the fireplaces at the sundown, the animals and flora interacting in all its entire ecosystem.
But the people’s smiles were one of the strongest memories from the video records. I immediately feel a sense of joy and connection, which relates to our collective emotional well-being.
“The world does not belong to us. We belong to the world.”
- The Last Sentinels, by Jimmy Nelson.
These communities have often inhabited their lands for generations and have developed deep connections with Nature and the environment. Their wisdom revolves around a profound understanding of the interconnectedness of all living beings and the need for balance and harmony with the natural world.
They understand the vital force representing a chain or continuum of all the individuals who had lived, were living, or were to live.
They also respect the importance of respecting natural cycles and seasons and have sustained their environments for centuries, using resources to ensure their regeneration and prevent over-exploitation.
This set reminds me the statement; What we design, design us back. It is often attributed to the American architect and designer R. Buckminster Fuller, who believed the things we create and design have a reciprocal relationship with us as designers and creators.
While you might think of impact as having a beneficial effect on something external to you — fellow humans, other species or the environment — the result can also be a personal, inward-looking pursuit. We can only create a better world to live in if we first redesign our own lives.
First, it passes to make ourselves better. Not only as professional leaders but to become more honest and conscientious humans for society and world. We then ensure we become more knowledgeable, self-reliant and fulfilled individuals.
By sharing the best of ourselves through the way we can positively impact the world with the unique competencies in each, we embark on an individual journey but also a collective journey:
Applying Who You Are
Once you’re comfortable with your identity, you can map that identity onto your desired culture. Your identity is the foundation upon which you build your interactions with others, the decisions you undertake, the outcomes you create and bring into the world, and the values you promote. What You Do Is Who You Are.
What you create reflects your values and your sensibility as a leader. Finding our sense of place or individuality and detaching from the multitude is essential to achieve emotional well-being and freedom. It also involves understanding and caring for the well-being of all beings around us.
Failing Fast and Staying Adaptable
Cultures evolve, and remaining flexible and adaptable is essential. We all face a crisis at some point. We also need time to process what happened and ensure we intend to move forward.
Unlearning what is irrelevant takes time, continuous awareness-growth-reflection. These are all crucial components of resilience and finding our unique place globally. It is what helped me along the way. Embrace change and be open to new ideas aligning with your core values.
Being humble
This quality involves self-awareness. Having a realistic understanding of our abilities and limitations, we acknowledge our strengths and weaknesses without exaggeration or false modesty.
It entails actively listening to others and being empathetic to experiences and perspectives. We are then more open to learning from different viewpoints and to knowledge with a curious mind.
Embracing discomfort
A desire for perfection is rooted in fear of failing and sometimes of negative judgment. The mind uses an ancient technique to avoid risks and keep safe. It can result from many other related fears, such as the fear of not knowing enough, which can inevitably make people doubt.
This sort of negative thinking tricks the mind. Avoiding this line of thinking in our lives opens us to fresh opportunities with calculated risks. Being beaten on the outside should not hurt our spirit; it can make us stronger. Let others see you for who you are. Allow yourself to use your creativity and resilience to be authentic.
Cooperation wins
The aspect of human interaction prevalent in various contexts is essential for growth.
It’s in this set, with different skills and diverse capabilities, or with the uniqueness in each of us converging, we cooperate in creating more holistic experiences and empathize at both micro and macro levels.
