Episode 110: There is Only One Team!
Travis Thomas argues that rival teams become allies when circles broaden, from soccer clubs to nations. He says recognizing shared humanity across political and cultural divides requires empathy and willingness to hear opposing views. Confronting that fear, he suggests, can accelerate solutions to societal problems.
Chapters
Hey, I'm Travis Thomas, the creator of Live Yes And, and I might try to co-op this Yes Daily for today. This is probably going to show up on my weekly Yes And podcast as well as the Inspired to Give podcast and any other areas where I can share this. So, hopefully I cover all my bases here. So I'm actually in the Fort Lauderdale Airport parking garage before jumping on a plane to go to Arizona, and then coming back to do some work in Miami. So kind of a busy day, but I wanted to get this in before I jumped on a plane. And so here's the idea that's coming to me today. There's a lot going on in our world. There's a lot going on in our country. There's a lot of divisiveness. We all know this. The theme for Inspired to Give this month is about doing something that scares us, right? A little bit of a Halloween flavor there that we appreciate. And I think, when I think about the thing that scares me the most, it is usually having to get along with a group of people that I don't typically agree with. That's the thing that scares me most. Can anyone else relate? I'm assuming that your hands are up right now as getting up on stage, not scary. Going in and having to work with a group of people where I really disagree with their ideas, really, really scary for me. And so that's kind of the thing that I'm thinking about most this month. And so here's an idea that came to me on my drive to the airport this morning. And so I'm the performance coach for my son's soccer club. And I always find it interesting every year where, you know, the world of youth sports is kids kind of hop around from year to year, from club to club. And so one season you might be playing against a club, maybe they're a rival club. And you know, you look at the kids or you look at the parents or the other coach and you find all those negative things that you don't like about them. It gives you a reason to not like them. And then a crazy thing happens, right? The next season, one or two of those kids are now on your team and you meet these kids and you're like, oh, this is a nice kid. And you meet their parents, you're like, oh, these are nice parents. And you're like, oh wow. They're kind of cool after all. And you create new friends and you get along with them. And I find that fascinating, right? My— one of my best friends growing up, before he was my best friend, he was sort of a rival on the other team. I thought he was a jerk. His parents came across as like, oh, they think they're better than us. And then lo and behold, one season he's on our team. And he becomes my best friend. We're still good friends to this day. And his family is like the best family in the world. Crazy how that happens. Which reminded me of— does this ever happen to you? You're growing up, maybe it's high school, you're in high school and you're playing against a rival team or your school team is playing against a rival team. And, hey, Trin. And you can just feel the hatred in between those 2 teams. Okay? So that happens. So then maybe you go to a big event in your state. Maybe it's a concert. Maybe it's a big sporting event. Like, I grew up in Michigan. And so now I'm at a— let's say I'm at a Michigan State game and I run into some kids from the opposing school, the high school. And I run into them like, oh, hey guys, man. We know each other. We're at this bigger event now. And now it's like we almost have a connection point. So we end up kind of hanging with that group of people like, oh, you guys are kind of cool. And then here's something that happens. You go on spring break. So now I'm from Michigan, I go on spring break to Florida, and you end up running into some people from Michigan. You're like, holy cow, where are you from in Michigan? I'm from Michigan. And you create this connection and you feel like there's a kindred spirit. We understand each other, we get each other. And so you end up hanging out with each other. You're like, oh, this is kind of cool. We get each other. We're from, we're from the same state. And so then you've got states who are rival states against each other and you all have that in common. And so something crazy happens, right? Maybe the World Cup comes or maybe the Olympics comes. And now we were rival states and now we're competing against other countries. And now we feel like, oh, now we're all one team. You know, we're not rivals anymore, we're one team. Who's the enemy? Those other countries. And so we all sort of rally together, we get each other, right? We're all Americans, we get each other. Oh no, we're all Michiganders. Oh, we get each other. Oh, we're all from Flint. Oh, we get each other. Oh, we're all from the same school. Oh, we get each other. Oh, we're all from the same little soccer club. And so the bigger, the more we get away from our little circle, right? The more we're drawn to the connection of the people that come from that inner circle. It's like you go on vacation, you go out of the country and you run into someone else who's an American. You're like, you're an American? Where are you from? I'm from Michigan. Oh my gosh, you're from California? Oh, that's so cool. Connection. And so the bigger we go, the more we look to connect smaller with the places that we've been because we feel that it creates connection. So what does this all mean? What this all means, and if it's not obvious by now, is there really isn't multiple teams. There's only one team. There's only one team, and we're all on the same team. Country to country, state to state, city to city, town to town, school to school, soccer club to soccer club, knitting group to knitting group. Um, Political party to political party. It just— there is not multiple teams competing against one another. We are all the same team and we are always constantly looking to connect and we find the connection points. We find it in the similarities. We find it in the familiarity. And the more we leave the areas where we're insular, Competing against those people in our immediate circles, we pull out of that and now we're connecting. We look for connection and cooperation with the people that we were competing with when we were only living in our small circle. We create a bigger circle, we're now collaborating with those people that were in the smaller circle. We create an even bigger circle, we're now collaborating with all those people that we were just competing with in the smaller circle. The idea is the bigger we go, the more we start to collaborate and connect with the people where we're from. And there's just not more than one team. So whether it's the environment, whether it's our politics, whether it's our economy, whether it's racial differences, whether it's cultural differences, whether it's We just are all on the same team. And the thing that scares us is, is, is having to actually find the similarities. The thing that scares us is, is realizing that we might not agree upon everything. But at the end of the day, once we get to know those people, we realize, oh my gosh, we're all on the same team anyway. And so the thing that scares us Is really us not wanting to, I think, admit to ourselves a lot of the time that that other group of people, they're no different than I am. And so what it requires of me is some compassion, some empathy, some patience, some willingness to go and cross the line and see things from their perspective. To go and get to know them because the more I go and get to know them, the quicker I realize we're all on the same team. And right now, everybody, we could all stand to come from the perspective that we're all on the same team. We're not on different teams. And the quicker we do that, the quicker the problems in our world are going to change and our country are going to change and our state is going to change and our city is going to change. In our own family, it's going to change. We're all on one team, people. And that is your Yes Daily for today. That is your weekly Yes and podcast. That is your Inspired to Give message for today. Off to Arizona, people. Have a wonderful day. Love you, Trin. Context for those of you who are listening, my daughter is actually watching this live and I love her and I'm waving back to her. And thanks for watching, Trin. Love you guys. Bye. Have a great day. Have a great day.
