Finding people of
influence
I decided to review
some of the handwritten notes I took with regards to the Deepak Chopra Creating
Abundance: 21-Day Meditation Challenge. The exercise for Day 1 having completed
Day 0 which was the invitation to consent participate was to make a list of 50
people who had influenced my life.
We were given the
latitude to consider people living or dead, relatives, friends, celebrities,
writers, and personalities who I might no9t necessarily know who might have
influence and contributed to my growth and development.
It looked like a
daunting task because at first, I did not think I would have 20 names, then I
ended up with 54, comprised of lovers, friends, relations, managers, writers
and religious people. I am surprised I had no performers, though some on the list were artists, and I could not find a distinctive identification related to
professions, even though they all covered a broad spectrum of endeavour.
Why they each
mattered
In listing keywords
beside the names, I began from the last name listed through to the first, the
first in the list was my boyfriend, Brian and then it radiated out of my
immediate circle to different albeit significant influences. I had about 30
keywords distributed amongst the names, some having multiple keywords.
In my review today, I
decided the count the occurrences of the keywords to assess the weights in the categories
of influence listed. I found that Friendship came first, then Story, Teacher,
and Opportunity shared the second place, the shared fifth place went to
Mentorship and Leadership, the seventh places were Love, Generosity, and
Adaptability, with the tenth places shared with Humility, Companionship, and Belief.
My friendships are significant
Now, this was not to
rank the importance of each keyword because it would not tell any story in the
proper context, yet, I do cherish Friendship, I was surprised I had that many
in the categories of Mentorship and particularly Leadership as I am somewhat
averse to concerted efforts to lead even though it is important in the
management of people, their talents and towards certain objectives.
Love and Companionship
obviously came from my lovers, the current who has the pride of place as first
amongst others, yet, I maintain good friendships with most of my previous significant
romantic relationships. I think some of the significant ways I have been
influenced are not by direct instruction, but through observation, experience,
and example.
The seeds they sowed
in me
I love to stories, we
are story people, I hope that I am teachable much I desire to be able to teach
purposefully, and as I have been given many opportunities, I sometimes see an opportunity
where it appears there is none and hope to present an opportunity for others to
see prospects and well beyond themselves. The people who have believed in me
gave me a world to explore well beyond what I could have imagined.
In all, the exercise
probably allowed me to reflect on the different people who have entered my life
at different times, some having gone, some forgotten and others enduring, everyone,
regardless of the state of our relationship today needs to be cherished for I
owe them all a debt of gratitude. In each of the people on that list, I find I
can count a blessing in my life, naming them one by one and realise what I
privilege it has been to be have been given the gift of these people to sow a
seed of positive influence in my life, that grew into a tree of life.
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