Welcome to another edition of Sunday Spark – where I share bite-sized ideas that challenge how we think about productivity, wellbeing, and personal growth.

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Happy Holiday Sunday,

We have reached the end of this interesting year. With this last issue of 2020, I thought I'd take a moment to acknowledge and thank everyone who has joined the newsletter. Thank you for trusting in me and taking a few minutes out of your Sunday to read my rambles. Your support means a lot to me, and I'm excited to continue releasing interesting (hopefully) content that sparks new ways of being, thinking and doing.

I want to leave you off with something fascinating I stumbled on while watching Tiny Worlds on Apple TV+. I enjoy watching documentaries that share insights from the different worlds all around us.

In Uganda's national park, there is a fascinating phenomenon between a group of mongooses and warthogs. The warthogs visit the mongooses for what we can call a spa treatment. You can see a video here.

The Warthogs will trickle in and lay themselves down for the mongooses to approach. The mongooses will pick off ticks and insects from the warthogs. As a result, the warthogs will get a friendly treatment that removes pests they are carrying, and the mongooses will get their food pick. It's an unusual relationship, but it's a beautiful one.

There is no judgement, just a mutually beneficial relationship. Warthogs and mongooses do not care that they look or sound different. It makes no difference to them that they are of other species, colours, sizes or come from diverse backgrounds. They are all animals, and they have learned that they get more out of this relationship by working together.

When we get past skin colour, ethnicity, cultural beliefs, religious beliefs, size, language, upbringing, likes, dislikes, social standing, we are just people.

When we learn to appreciate each other's differences, we unlock possibilities that are so much more powerful than when we don't.

We live in a very diverse world, and we have the opportunity to work with people who look and sound different from us every day. When we take that opportunity to understand and learn from each other, we unlock empathy in all of us and so much more that wasn't possible before.

Let's continue to build our capacity to embrace our differences, embrace diversity and leverage its many strengths. We only have to gain by doing so, but we stand to lose much more if we don't.

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Quote of the week

We are stronger together than we are alone.

From Walter Payton.

Happy holidays everyone, and stay safe.

Miguel,
Sparknotion – Think Differently.