Hello everyone and welcome to the Wisdom of the Ages podcast show. I have a very special treat for you today in which we will discuss how the wisdom behind diversity lives with us today. This is going to be with my good friend, Peggy O’Neill. Let me tell you why you’re going to be excited about this episode and why Peggy is awesome. First, I’d like to begin with a wisdom quote by Marianne Williamson.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”
Speaking of the light, I would like to introduce my guest. Peggy O’Neill is an inspirational speaker, corporate trainer, and author. Over the past 15 years, she has shared her story of overcoming the challenges of being a little person, to inspire others to open their minds and hearts to differences. She also educates women and people in minorities to find their voice, speak up, and walk tall. From the soaring height of three feet, eight inches tall, Peggy has triumphed over a mountain range of challenges.
Coming from the field of psychotherapy, Peggy draws from the wisdom of her unique life experiences and lifelong training, in the areas of empowerment and diversity. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. The wisdom of diversity. So, Peggy welcome to the show.
Thank you. So nice to be here with you.
This is going to be fun.
Yeah.
I know you’re a professional speaker, so you’ll be good at this. Can you tell us more about that?
I hope so. Okay. Yeah, so I have the gift of gab and speaking is my gift. I am making my livelihood and my career through inspiring, and motivating, and teaching people how to open their minds and hearts to differences. And all the things you said, empower them, help them open their hearts, open their minds, up level their ability to be kind. I’ve spoken to lots of Fortune 500 companies. I’ve spoken to over a hundred thousand kids in schools, in anti-bullying practices and building self-esteem. My life is a total joy.
Well, you don’t hear that all the time. My life is a total joy. I love it. I absolutely love that.
Except when I have an emotional train crash.
That’s probably true for all of us.
Yeah. That happens once in a while. I’m not going to say that it doesn’t.
Well I know you’ve had a lot of challenges, especially. Three foot eight inches tall, that’s got to be a challenge right there.
Yeah.
Yeah. I’m sure you’ve been labeled as different, so can you tell us why diversity is important to you?
Yeah. Well, there’s a lot of challenges that go with diversity, and one of them is the obvious, not being able to reach things. Another one is people staring at you because your body looks significantly different than others. I think the biggest challenge is when people have judgments towards me, and they have preconceived notions that something, because I’m different. Because my body is significantly different, I’m way, way on the left side of the bell curve. Little people are a phenomenon of one in 50,000, so it’s not very often that. Oftentimes when I meet somebody I say, “Have you ever even talked to a little person before?” And they say, “I’ve seen a little person, but I’ve never talked to a little person.” That’s pretty amazing, right?
Because of that severe difference, people are a little bit maybe shocked or surprised when they see me. If they don’t have a, what I would call, more enlightened or open framed mindset, they go to “That person’s different.” And unconsciously they go to, “I’m afraid, I have to protect myself, I’m going to create separation.” Usually they do that by considering themselves superior and me inferior. I would say that’s the number one biggest obstacle.
The reason that diversity is so important to me is that, for a long time in my life, for the first pretty much half of my life, I tried to pretend that I was just like everybody else. It led to a lot of just, that was a total train wreck. It was a total train wreck. My relationships were terrible, my ability to get through obstacles was awful, and I just wasn’t seeing things objectively. I had lots of disappointment, because I expected things that were out of the realm of taking into consideration that I was so different.
Diversity’s become so important to me because as I started to come on board with the fact that I am different, and be with that difficulty of the differences, that the blessings of the differences has also started to show up. One of the blessings of the differences is my own uniqueness and my superpowers. Now I really just try to put my attention on those, and shine them, and leverage them for all around success in my life.
Another reason that it’s important to me is because it’s led me to a deeper appreciation of differences in general. That has led me to a deeper understanding and experience of what unifies all diversity, that transcendental state which is the basis of what everything, all the diversity comes out of. Not only do I have more appreciation of all the differences in life. Emotionally, physically, nature, all the people, ideas, points of view, all of that, emotions. I also have a deeper connection with my own inner true nature, which is a state which everyone has inside of them. I feel connected to all of life.
My goodness. When I listen to you, I have to say that my heart just, it really just blows wide open. I can’t really imagine what it would be like to…
Yeah, you can’t.
Did you say one in 50,000 people?
Yeah, I did.
Wow, that is… So, you’re definitely qualified to talk about diversity. Oh goodness.
Yeah.
You walk tall. You’re not bitter. You’re walking tall, I love it.
Thank you. You might mention next the title of one of my books, that’s why you’re saying that.
That is the title of one of your books, that I love. The first book that I ran across that you had written, that I still really love and I have on my bookshelf, is a children’s book and it’s called, Little Squarehead. Before you tell us about that, and I know that you’re going to tell us some more about maybe some unity consciousness, and how you find superpowers. Maybe inner power, and share some practices with us, and some other exciting things, but we’re going to have to take a break. Where can we find out more about you? The listeners, where can they go to?
They can go to peggyspeaks.com and it’s just how it sounds. On there, you can see my programs that I give in organizations, corporations. You can see my books, you can see a bunch of articles that I’ve written, and all kinds of other fun stuff. Assessments for your company to see how you’re doing diversity wise, and more fun.
Okay. Actually, I’ve been on your website, it’s incredible. I definitely encourage people to go look, they’ll find out all kinds of things. Okay. When we come back from this short break, we’re going to talk about the wisdom of diversity. Stay tuned and we’ll be right back.
To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.
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