Book 19 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title - The Platinum Rule

Book - Option B: Facing adversity, building resilience, and finding joy by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant

Book Description - OPTION B weaves Sandberg’s experiences coping with adversity after she lost her husband unexpectedly with new findings from Adam Grant and other social scientists. The book features stories of people who recovered from personal and professional hardship, including illness, injury, divorce, job loss, sexual assault and imprisonment. These people did more than recover—many of them became stronger.

My Reflection: My Sister, Kristin, is who recommended, purchased, and sent Option B to me. I was in the middle of experiencing my own tragic loss in my life after losing my infant daughter, and my sister thought Sheryl's book and story might help as she had read it in the past and found a lot of similarities to what we were going through. I reluctantly accepted her gift when it arrived and began reading even though I was a little scared to read stories of other people's trauma's at the time as I still didn't know how to process my own.

Once I finally got over the fear and opened up the book to begin, I was so glad I did. Sheryl's journey of loss and searching that she described in the book was eerily similar to my own after I had lost my daughter. Her words immediately resonated with me and where I was in my life and I quickly fell in love with this book. One unique notion she discussed that I had never heard of before was this thing called the Platinum Rule. This was new to me, I'd heard of the golden rule...but not the platinum rule.

So what is the platinum rule and how can it change your life? The platinum rule is "treat others the way THEY want to be treated". "They" vs "You" is the key with the platinum rule. When you put the person that is dealing with a trauma, tragedy, grief, or just life in general in the center of how you approach them...everything changes. Instead of thinking of ways and things that would help YOU (Golden Rule) and sharing them with the other person, you are forced to think of them first. You are forced to put yourself in their shoes, to listen with empathy, and to think hard about what THEY need. It is so hard to not make ourself the center of our own universe. That is our default mode and why the Golden Rule is so relevant. The platinum rule, is the next level in human interaction and is a great reminder that if you want to truly help someone else, you have to seek first to understand their life before doing anything else. So listen closely, let others tell their stories, and then decide on how you want to help based on what they need. The platinum rule has the potential to change your life.

Question: What are some ways that you can you apply the platinum rule in your own life?

Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? - An Introduction YOML Podcast Discussion - Option B

YOML Bookstore - Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Adam Grant and Sheryl Sandberg