00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on episode 729 of the inspired stewardship podcast. This is Wendy Gentry from Baker university. I encourage you to live your life from the inside out. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott made her. You still had a choice. And that is a truth that I believe is true in the world.
00:00:39 It's what gives you some sense of power. Now don't get me wrong. The system may be set up or the situation may be set up where you have all of your options are bad except for one. And you take the one best option amongst the myriad of bad options. Welcome, and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be,
00:01:06 then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact. And today's episode about developing your influence through stewarding your talent. I talk with you about why all too often, we aren't fighting to be heard.
00:01:35 We're fighting to be right, how there is a difference between not being right and being wrong and why you can fight for truth, but also recognize that your truth. Isn't likely the whole story. You've heard me talk about developing your talent and one of the best ways to do that is through books. But if you're like most people today, it's hard to find the time to read.
00:02:02 And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible. Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from. And you can pick one and listen your way to developing your talents via audible. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books. The same way you're listening to this podcast.
00:02:34 Is it better to be right or to be heard? Know? It's one of those questions that I ask myself from time to time right now here, where I'm recording it's it's in the middle of the election cycle. We're gearing up for the presidential election. And it's interesting. I watch Facebook or I tune into the news, or I listened to people having a conversation at church or at work or wherever,
00:02:59 even just in the cafe. And it often seems like all people are interested in is being right. They don't really know care to be listened to. They don't want the other person to listen to them. They certainly don't want to listen to anyone else. Instead, they want to scream at the top of their voice, how their position is right? And therefore all others are wrong.
00:03:25 That there is only one thing that is real in the world and everything that they believe. You know, if, if I just show you this, if you read this argument, if you listen to this particular podcast or read this article, inevitably you'll come to the same conclusion as me, because obviously my viewpoint on this, this is right, and all other viewpoints are wrong,
00:03:50 but take it out. The politics, you can put this in almost any situation. If you're married, you've probably had a fight with your spouse. That in reality, if you stop and think about it, the truth was you were fighting about something that really came down to two different people, having two different opinions. It wasn't about, there was some sort of arbitrary truth out there in the world and all things,
00:04:12 and all people would agree to that truth. Instead, it was really about a matter of two different viewpoints. We all come with our own history. We all come with our own background. We all come with our own experiences. And although I do believe that there are things that are just true. There are funded the mental truths in the world. I think a lot of what we argue about really falls into categories about how we believe the world to be one of the reason since I talk so much about limiting beliefs,
00:04:45 as I think the way we believe reality to be often is what creates the very reality that we're living in. If we, we think that everyone is out to get us, then suddenly everyone is out to get us. On the other hand, if we think that the world works in a cooperative way, then we also see evidence of cooperation all too often.
00:05:11 And what we end up fighting about is the fact that we feel we're right and therefore all others must be wrong. But the truth is there is a huge difference between not being right and being wrong. One can not be right and simply have misunderstood the situation. Somebody can not be right, and simply be looking at things through a different lens because they're a different race or they're a different sex,
00:05:36 or they've had a different set of experiences growing up. And therefore the way they perceive this situation is different than you. But that doesn't mean that they're wrong in their perception. It simply means they're different all too often, we expect unity and uniformity to be the same thing, but they're really not. We can have unity without being uniform. In fact,
00:06:05 I would argue that organizations that have diversity within them are stronger because of that diversity, because they recognize the idea that different doesn't necessarily mean bad. Different doesn't necessarily mean wrong. But see, we kind of raise everyone in the society right now, here in the West, where it's all about being right. You know, I used to be a teacher and I can tell you,
00:06:33 teaching education is set up with this whole idea that there is a right answer and a wrong answer. And your job as a student is to discover the right answer. But the truth is sometimes there's a lot more nuance. Sure. There are facts. There are things that are empirically true. We can show them to be true. They're factual information. But even when it comes to something like history or economics,
00:06:56 there's also wide areas that really come down to beliefs and come down to patterns much more than arbitrary or unique facts. See the truth is what ends up happening all too often is we're fighting not for the truth. We're not fighting for something that is able to be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. That is true. But instead we're fighting to simply be recognized as right,
00:07:24 that our view of reality, the way we see the world is the one right way. And all others must see the world as we do. But the truth is, as you mature, as you get older, oftentimes you begin to recognize that there is such a thing as the truth, but oftentimes what we see is not the whole truth. That's not the whole story.
00:07:47 I mean, think about it. You've heard the expression. If you're dealing with two people in a situation, the truth is that there's usually one person's truth. The other person's truth. And then in the middle is the real truth. What really happened? And sometimes the truth is it's not even in the middle. Sometimes it's somewhere completely different because it is entirely possible.
00:08:09 I've seen this both as a teacher now as a coach, when I've been managing people in the corporate world, I see over and over how we all come to a situation and we will see our truth within it. And therefore all other truths are wrong. Even though the reality is someone else may be seeing the exact same situation differently. It's like looking out the window,
00:08:33 but you're looking out at two different parts of a large animal and you can't both see the entire pattern. And therefore you have two different realities that you're able to observe. The truth is we do this all the time. We do this with things that we think of as factual, we think of this is the way the world is and the reality, it's not the way the world is the way we perceive the world.
00:08:58 It's why subtle changes in what we say and what we do and how we view things can have huge, long lasting repercussions. One of the reasons I don't allow my clients to say I had to do something, but change that to, I chose to do something is because the truth is there's always a choice. It's just with that choice comes consequences. And so oftentimes we choose to do something a certain way because we don't want to face the consequences.
00:09:26 And that's a good thing. But the truth is you still had a choice. And that is a truth that I believe is true in the world. It's what gives you some sense of power. Now don't get me wrong. The system may be set up or the situation may be set up where you have all of your options are bad except for one.
00:09:46 And you take the one best option amongst the myriad of bad options, but that's still a choice. It may be the best of the worst, but it's still a choice. And it's the best choice you can make at that moment in time that allows you to continue to move forward effectively. That's a powerful way to view the world. And when you view it that way,
00:10:11 you begin to recognize that it's no longer about being right. Instead. It's about communicating. It's about listening and it's about being heard. And it's okay. If at the end of it, you don't see the same picture of reality because different doesn't mean bad. Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener,
00:10:43 we challenge you to not just sit back and passively, listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of talent, you can go over to inspired stewardship.com/talent and sign up for our five week series on the stewardship of talent. Or if you're in the us, you can text four,
00:11:10 four, two, two, two talent tips. That's talent tips to four four, two, two, two, and get those tips until next time, invest your time, your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact.