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Bullying & Glowing Jelly Beans

Why does bullying even exist and can we do anything about it?

Glowing Bullies

What if worth – the value one places on their own life and its value to the world – could be seen as glowing jelly beans in our bellies?

As words of affirmation and destiny where spoken, new jelly beans would begin to glow. With hate, fear, doubt – “you’re not enough” – jelly beans would fade away.

Imagine what it would be like to be a child…

You go to school early in the morning, belly filled with glowing jelly beans. You have an excitement that bubbles up as you think about the conversations you are about to have. You love seeing glowing jelly beans light up in your friends and classmates. As you walk down the hallway towards your classroom, one of the school bullies walks your way.

A bully isn’t always easy to spot, their bellies don’t glow as bright as the others. Most other kids are afraid of bullies because they make their jelly beans go dark, but you’re not the other kids. You’ve been taught that they’re only bullies because they don’t have many jelly beans of their own, but you have enough to share. You know that you’ll light up their jelly beans before they put out one of your own.

And that’s the strange thing. You would think that bullies would bully to get their jelly beans to light up, but it never works that way. Bullying can make others jelly beans go dark at no real benefit to the bully. But the opposite is also true. You can go around lighting up the jelly beans of everyone around you – including the bullies – and you’ll never lose a jelly bean of your own.

Even if the world isn’t so obvious, nor the hearts of man so simple, we’re not really so much more complex either.

We live in a world of hope, love, joy, and life. But it’s also a world of doubt, fear, insecurity, and death.

But we can learn and we can teach where to put our focus. We can purposefully develop character. Purposefully affirm our family, friends, and children. We can walk around with bellies full of glowing beans and light the bellies of others we meet.

One of the organizations we support and work with is Bee Friendly Family – they are ending bullying. If you are a family dealing with or passionate about ending bullying, then become a Bee Friendly Family member. It’s a low monthly fee that not only gives your family the resources to deal with bullying but also pays to get the program into even more schools.

Become a member. Nominate your school. Light up some bellies. End bullying.

Benjamin Kamp is a strategic advisor, fractional executive, reformer, and author of "Simplify Online." His passion is to see you and your organization fully come into your purpose. And to see that happen offers a unique mix of strategic advisory and executive leadership, with a focus on technology and AI, through his business, BISVI."

Learn more about Benjamin | BISVI

Lifestyle

Who are You?

Everyone has a story. Our stories are what color in the details of who we are and how we show up to the world around us, and how we engage with it/them: relationships, jobs, schools, etc. We were all intentionally and intelligently designed to be unique individuals.  When we discover who we are, where we came from, and what we were designed for in this lifetime, we find the freedom in seeing ourselves in our truest identity.  It is in this freedom, our personal story can be expressed organically and experienced by others.

The messages of our stories are often communicated and translated through the ways we impact and interact with the people we are privileged to have in our lives— whether for a short while, or for a lifetime. When we discover who we are and the purpose we were uniquely designed to fulfill, we begin to not only value ourselves, we also begin to value others around us at the same capacity of which we value ourselves. Our intentions, interactions, and impact become more authentic, vulnerable, and hold a greater potential to add life changing value to the lives we are privileged to be a part of.

So how do we begin to discover who we are at our core and what we were designed to live for? Awareness is the first step. Taking an inventory of our character, our morals, our values, our tendencies, patterns, feelings, passions, attitudes, relationships can be key to self discovery. These are the fruit from seeds that have been planted in the soil of our young minds from the moment we were even conceived– unconsciously. Taking a brave trip down memory lane to take a good look at where we’ve historically come from, is another key factor to self discovery. These impactful experiences, whether big or small, manifest in our idiosyncrasies. Some of which would be ideal to change, because we and others around us, deserve them to be changed.

We as humans will inevitably share similarities. The genetic and neurological composition of our individual beings however, are uniquely different. When we take a good look at who we are at our core there is a lot to discover about how intentionally and intelligently we were uniquely designed to be, and the life we were destined to uniquely live; serving the world around us at different capacities and various ways.

Here are some questions to ask yourself…
1. Who are you?
2. Where did you come from?
3. What were your designed for here on earth?
4. How were you created to impact the world around you?
5. What does your unique design have, to solve a problem that exists in the community that surrounds your life?
6. When are you going to venture out into a courageous journey of fully living at your greatest potential and impacting at your optimal?
7. What or who do you need in your life, to make this happen? (I call this, resourcing up!)

Sometimes, we need someone in our corner coming alongside us through the journey of self discovery. For those interested in discovering their truest identity and the possibility of unlocking their greatest potential, connect with me! I’d be happy to be a part of that journey and see you thrive as the best version of yourself!

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