The Bright side of Conflict

Most of us avoid conflicts like Covid.

It feels confronting and uncomfortable and doesn’t exactly carry the best rep given all the tensions that are associated with it.

But what if our whole concept of conflict is fundamentally wrong?

The world of animation offers a refreshing perspective on this.

23 years ago an unconventional thinker Brad Bird joined Pixar. He was bold and fearless in his thinking and proposed an out-of-the-box vision to their technical leadership, which they outrightly rejected claiming it was impossible.

Most people would withdraw and succumb to what the ‘big guys’ say, but Brad wasn’t one of them.

Instead of playing out the people pleaser, he sought other outliers in his team to work on the project. This turned out to be Pixar’s greatest work, which you may know as The Incredibles.

The movie won an Oscar while grossing $631 million across the globe. Something that may never have happened if Brad had shied away from conflict.

Challenging the norm and questioning existing beliefs opens room for rethinking and innovation. No blind spots can ever be found by surrounding yourself with people who agree with all your ideas or are too afraid to speak their minds.

It all depends on how it’s done because it’s perfectly possible to express a difference of opinion about something (task conflict) without attacking the person and making it personal (relationship conflict).

Most people get caught up in silly ego games, playing the defense rather than focusing on the matter at hand and solving that objectively.

Hence the reason that conflict carries the reputation that it does. It’s because of our incompetency in dealing with differences and communicating our ideas.

If done with the right intentions and in the right way, conflict can be the greatest thing for great things to emerge, such as a multi-million dollar blockbuster.

The best way to solve your biggest problems

Life's worst situations hit the best of us.

And it’s times like these where getting stuck in the trap of overthinking, worry and stress brings on more problems than the actual problem itself.

Kevin Crenshaw aka theheartguy realised this soon enough. After having a series of rough breakups, to losing all his money and experiencing anxiety as well as suicidal tendencies, this guy managed to pull himself out of his trauma by tapping into his intuition.

Turns out this thing that we so casually bypass, can actually be a total game changer.

This conversation will help you learn all about the power of following heart-led wisdom and the life-changing benefits of practicing self-love, in its truest essence.

An insightful tweet

Ive always known that no matter what successes people have accomplished, or what appears on the outside, none of us have it completely together.

Then yesterday I came across this profound post by Alex Lieberman, co-founder of The Morning Brew, who opened up about his limiting beliefs and self-inflicted judgments.

It’s one thing to be aware of this stuff, it’s another thing to own it and share it out in the open.

Next level respect for this guy.