Keeping the Peace

“As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might.” Marian Anderson

This is so obvious when you think about it from a physical perspective. If you were physically holding someone down, unless you have really long arms or really strong legs or some other technique; you have to adopt a posture which keeps you lower to the ground. I think this is only a good thing in wrestling or mixed martial arts fighting.

What this means is that if you are spending your time trying to keep others from advancing in life or in their career, you are holding yourself back too. Holding someone down (even mentally or emotionally) requires you to keep yourself lower to the ground (again mentally or emotionally) too. How can you be the best you can be when you are lowering yourself?

This is another reminder about the importance of letting go of anger and hostility and unhealthy competition. The time you spend trying to put someone in their place. Or the time you spend keeping someone in their place (as you see it), is time you spend holding yourself back too.

The energy you spend trying to make sure your adversary does not get ahead is energy you could be spending to strengthen your own skills, enhance your learning and advancing your own career by providing value. Holding another person back does not provide any value. In fact if you are using your time to prevent someone else from advancing you are taking time and money away from your employer and from your own career.

When others grow so can you. If you are so concerned about someone getting ahead of you, why don’t you use that competition to push yourself to be even better?

Let it go, let others grow and allow yourself to soar!

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