As I sit down to write this piece I am so mindful that I just might annoy, nay insult so many people that I hold dear, close friends, colleagues and people who have, up till now, been nothing but supportive and encouraging to me - I can assure you all this is as far from my intention as can be imagined and I will endeavour to do my best not to let this happen. The fear that I have is that many of you know where I live, have been to my home and that some evening under the dark of night someone of you (or a collective of you!) organised for ‘the heavies’ to pay me a wee visit!
So I promise that, as much as I want to freely speak my mind, I will tread as gently as possible and that should I upset anyone you will forgive me over coffee. I do hold on to the thought that those who know me well enough know that my intentions are good and my heart is in the right place.
First of all, I am from here. County Down. Northern Ireland or The North Of Ireland. I am a proud Northern Irish, Irish, European - there you go, I’ve done it already, someone will be upset. Really though, these are all just words and can do nothing to anyone unless you decide to let them. We are meaning making machines. One of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned and taught in recent years is this; Event - Thoughts - Emotions - Actions - Results, but that’s a whole other post.
You see, to be honest, I couldn’t really give a damn for the politics, or even the geography, it is the people that fascinate and inspire me. I am a results coach. If you imagine 2 circles drawn on a page beside one and other, one labeled ‘current state’ and the other labeled ‘desired state’ I work in the ‘gap’ in the middle. I help people to bridge the gap between ‘current’ and ‘desired’ states. In my role, which I love dearly, I have been lucky enough to work with and mentor some of the most amazing people. Ladies and gents at the top of their respective fields ; psychologists, physiotherapists, exam coaches, authors, athletes, entrepreneurs, translators, property developers, filmmakers, life coaches and the list goes on and on and gets more and more diverse.
The people I work with never cease to amaze me with their abilities, their intellect, their talents, their humour and generosity, their resilience and determination, their ingenuity and creativity…this is another list which could take up a whole piece of its own but why am I telling you all this?
Well, just this week a colleague of mine invited two fantastic young men here to Belfast. The guys in question were Australian and happened to be in Scotland for an amazing endurance event later this week. Tofe Evans and Luke Wharton ferried over from Scotland for the day and they were just the best. They were met by Martin and Michelle Gilchrist (Gilchrist & Co Chartered Accountants) and shown a little of Belfast. Then James Perry (James Perry Exam Coaching) and myself brought the lads around some of the ancient sites of County Down; Loughinisland, Inch Abbey, Downpatrick Cathedral, Struel Wells and Saul Chapel and we had, I’m sure the other 3 lads would agree, a wonderful few hours together. We then were lucky enough to listen to Tofe in conversation with Matthew Thompson (Best of Belfast) where both guys discussed their respective books and chatted about mindset, resilience and mental well being - a very engaging conversation indeed.
These guys had never met us before, had no idea what they were getting in to, came with open hearts and open minds and we loved having them, so much so that we are already making plans to catch up again in a few weeks time. So Tofe and Luke, should you read this please know we really did love having you and will welcome you back with open arms next time.
But this isn’t about Tofe and Luke, this is about us. We as a collective of people on a rock on the western edges of Europe are blessed/spoilt/overrun with arguably the world's greatest concentration of thought leaders, artists, musicians, business leaders, poets, writers, spiritualists, engineers, builders, chefs, farmers and food producers, teachers and educationalist, sports men and women, actors and actresses. For our population I would offer the suggestion that we are punching massively above our weight. This list of talented Irish/Northern Irish men and women must get offered up as another list that could easily have it’s own piece written and still not be exhausted. Yet still we get star struck at the exotic (apologies, I am aware that Australia isn’t that exotic). Why is that?
Now, before you all start sending voodoo darts my way, we, as a nation, are also renowned for our welcome, which is something that I would also argue we are amazing at. I wouldn’t have a great knowledge of, or a love for religious scripture but it didn’t go unnoticed by me that as we entered the grand doors of The Down Cathedral there stood a huge rock with the scripture ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me in’. I have seen this scripture (and this rock) many many times before and I love the sentiment of the words. I have travelled to many places, been feed by many people and returned that favour many times over for many other people. Xenophobic I am not, in fact if there is an opposite word to xenophobic I’d like to classify myself as that!
My point is this. Is it something in our national (whatever you consider that to be) psyche that leads us (and I include myself in that ‘us’) to overlook the absolute abundance of brilliance we have on our rock? Are we yet to learn about and accept our national self-concept? Do we still have some sort of nation inferiority complex?
Forgive me for paraphrasing but Nelson Mandela said ‘you are a child of the world, you do nobody any good by hiding your fire under a bushel’ I for one, believe it is time we did realise our own collective brilliance and started to show the world how brilliant we are. First though, we must show ourselves. We must see, feel and believe that we are just about as good as anyone anywhere on this planet.
Why not bring great guys like Tofe and Luke here to listen to us talk. Why not let guys like that bring our inspirational people to places like Australia to talk. The people on this rock, in their many forms, shapes, sizes, colours and creeds have the ability and talent to stand shoulder to shoulder with anyone, anywhere and I am now making it my business in whatever small part I can, to making that happen.
Kevin