Gen Z Leadership

If you are reading this I would like to ask you to take a minute of silence to consider the people who’ve loved you into being - who have helped you become who you are.

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Last year around this time, I had just watched "A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood." I went only because I thought its Tom Hanks, so the movie has to be good haha. Oh was I right - the movie quite literally changed my life. The activity I started this article with is also a scene in the movie and something Mr Rogers asked people to practice often. I just remember crying - and wanting to keep crying forever. You know the kind of crying after which you feel so much weight has been lifted from your shoulders - that's how I felt - I felt like I was healed.

Since then, I have watched the movie multiple more times. It never fails to make me feel better. But what prompted me to write this article is a recent Youtube video I watched compiled by the Next of Ken (linked here). I seriously urge you to watch this - and watch everything you can about Mr Rogers. I want to write so much about it but it is just better if you just consume as much content as you can of him.

The one thing I would focus on is Mr Rogers focus on ensuring we all understand that we are all unique and there is absolutely nothing wrong about being who we are. Everyone I talk to seems to be struggling with belonging. There is a lot of things plaguing us young people right now but the sense of belonging will definitely be on top there. We struggle with this in our friendships, our relationships and our work. I sincerely believe that in the current context of the world - where so many things just seem to be pushing us to be a certain way, to conform to things we don't want to - it is extremely important for us to remember we are all unique and that is OKAY. I could never make the connection between being who you are and sense of belonging till I read Braving the Wilderness by (yes you guessed it) Brene Brown. She says "Belonging doesn't need you to change who you are, but be who you are." That is absolutely powerful. But this article is not for me to summarise the book but the main thing I want to do is urge every single person who reads this to please to go through Mr Rogers content. PLEASE.

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Hello, my fellow neurotics. If you know Mr Rogers and you have read Brene Brown's work, don't you think there are sooo many parallels. I am constantly trying to create a graphic for both their work and correlation. If it is not super messy, I would love to one day publish it. If you guys know of similar work please let me know!