Difference is the Difference That Makes a Difference

http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/meet-the-canada-reads-2018-contenders-1.4505780
John Ginder is one of the founders of NLP (neurolinguistic programming). He has said, "Difference is the difference that makes a difference."  What does that mean?

It means that before you can grow or change, you need to let new information into your system. But your system (your brain/mind/body all working together) automatically filters out most new information.  It takes will power to pay attention to something you don't already expect.

Which brings me to the picture above. Canada Reads just launched its books and their defenders for 2018.  Maybe you will take the time to read the five books and play along when the debates start. I will.  And I am pretty sure already that I will not like all five of the books. That's sort of the point.

You might get stronger by confirming biases and over learning what is already familiar. But you won't grow. You won't change. You won't open up new possibilities.

Reading someone else's choices is one way to let difference in so growth can happen. Reading a book I don't like much can be a struggle. But it's also one way to answer what might be the most important question of our time. In a world that offers so many ways to feed our biases, how do we let difference in?

Growth requires difference. If you are not sure you're getting enough difference in your diet, try a Canada Reads book.  If you're lucky, you won't love it. You'll grow through it instead.


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