Currently we think inside-out: “I’m from this part of town,” “I live in this city,” “I’m proud to be from this state,” “I’m American,” or “I’m Chinese” or “I’m Bolivian.” We begin with our smallest locality and work our way outwards. But this pits us against nearly everyone else, because we start with the most limiting criteria. One can find differences with another by establishing their smallest geographic identity.

An outside-in approach works better. What if we started with the largest common denominators: “We're human,” “We all live on Earth,” “We both live in the same hemisphere,” “We reside on the same continent,” “We’re both American/Chinese/Bolivian,” “We're from the same region of the country,” or “We call the same state home.” This paradigm shift enables us to view the world, and all the people in it, from a more inclusive perspective. It also reinforces the notion that it’s not about Me, it’s about universal harmony (more on that in a future post).

We are more similar than we are different. Let’s commit to adopting an outside-in approach when thinking of others.