Are you suffering with someone, feeling for someone, or maybe feeling as that someone feels? 

People mix these up all the time, and since one of my best friends calls me “the word guy,” I thought it’d be fun to share some ways to remember the differences. 

Sympathy is feeling for someone. 
You don’t have to have experienced a death in your family to have sympathy for someone who did. 

Empathy is feeling as the other person feels. 
You have had a similar experience to what another person is going through, and you can feel the feelings as they do. 

Here’s the one that’s tricky. And it’s deep.

When you say that you have compassion for someone, you are saying (by definition) that you are suffering with them. You then act on their behalf because compassion is difficult. 

Compassion requires true presence without avoidance, and it requires a special kind of closeness, without losing yourself in the process. 

Compassion is presence without avoidance.

Think about that for a second. 
When was the last time you were just… simply… present for another human? 

Just being present without trying to distract is difficult enough when we’re by ourselves, let alone with another. I mean, right now, you’re reading this on a device that has had a notification or two pop-up. Presence is tricky. It takes fortitude to remain with someone while you are neither sucked into their space nor attempting to distract from it. 

Practice that the rest of this month. Take presence to another level.

This is where you’ll keep making your magic!

See you here next week. 

= Wayne =
Check out the NEW Exponential Success Summit. 
It’s a small group designed for you! Boston in early October. 
(We’re also aiming for Helsinki in May.)
Let me know if you want to join us.