Posted by Click here to get a free newsletter Zen and a Way of sustainable prosperity: Balance, financial success, and sustainability with the secrets of the Japanese Omi-merchants.
Another thing you can do in Shiga is to cycle around Lake Biwa. It is called Biwaichi, and I already wrote about it before. What is Biwaichi?
This week, let me move to a new topic: The ways sustainably prosperous people can operate.
In the past, movers and shakers had tendencies to be outspoken. They often dominated the conversations. They were articulate about what they wanted and were able to express their ideas enthusiastically.
It was important in a competitive world.
However, in the culture of sustainable prosperity, you are more respected if you are a good listener. This is because you want to cooperate with others and to cooperate, you need to be able to listen to others in order to find out what they want.
This must be quite challenging if you grew up in the Western culture, since you were taught to be outspoken. The conversations were like games, and if you let others speak, you lose in the games. It was imperative for you to speak out to get your point across. Otherwise, nobody would know what you want. Opportunities should be taken, not given.
If you were operating in the old culture, you need to play your game according to the old rule.
Nevertheless, there are already some people who practice the art of listening in the West, too, since many people practice meditation including Zen and psychotherapeutic works which require listening skills. You can surround yourself with these kinds of people by choosing to work with them. Another word, the new culture is rising gradually.
If there aren’t people like that around you, you can be pioneers of the new culture by initiating it and becoming the role models. Little by little others will start following you.
Okay, that sounds good, but how do I listen? All I have been taught is to speak a lot.
I will talk about it in the next post.
Omi-merchant's way of Sustainable Prosperity 