12 REFLECT: on growth
In the 1937 Disney classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Evil Queen is obsessed with being the best. Every day she stands in front of the magic mirror and asks, ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?'
It all goes swimmingly so long as she hears, ‘Queen, you are the fairest in the land'. It goes downhill big time, though, when she gets feedback she doesn't want to hear. One day the mirror responds, ‘Snow White is the fairest of them all' … and the Queen goes nuts. Snow White becomes the object of her hatred, and she plots to have the young girl killed.
It's a classic tale of good versus evil, and a lesson that it's not what's on the outside that's important, but what lies within us. Outwardly, the Queen is beautiful, but inside she is vain, insecure and filled with self-loathing and hatred for possible rivals (definitely a famine mindset!).
She's also completely unprepared for unwelcome feedback. It's a classic case of ‘shooting the messenger' (or in this case destroying the mirror then plotting to take out her rival). Workplaces are often competitive and political, and it can be easy to get caught in the comparison trap and to think that to get ahead you need to win, to beat all rivals, to be ‘the best'. Yet success in life, and at work, isn't about beating everyone else; it's about being your best, which means any competition should be with yourself.
Check in regularly to see if you are being your best, and if you like what ...
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