It's easy to become discouraged and even hopeless these days. It seems everywhere you look, there's division and discord.

In fact, it's getting hard to find anything we Americans agree on anymore. Well, I guess there's one exception: An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll last year found that 80 percent of Americans agree the country is "mainly" or "totally" divided. At least we can agree that we disagree on pretty much everything.

This trend is exacerbated in countless ways, from partisan social media feeds to choices in television news. Increasingly, a big factor is also where we choose to live.

As Emily Badger writes in the New York Times, "urban-rural polarization has become particularly acute in America: particularly entrenched, particularly hostile, particularly lopsided in its consequences."

And things aren't improving. "Disagreement among voters on a range of political issues has risen sharply in recent years," a divide that intensified during the first years of President Trump's administration, according to the Pew Research Center.

Data suggests that this growing divergence even encompasses who we surround ourselves with and where we choose to live.

It's now common for Democrats and Republicans to have social circles filled with people who share their own beliefs, which, researchers say "diminishes the likelihood that people will have their partisan viewpoints challenged in any kind of meaningful way," increasing pressure "to adopt partisan viewpoints rather than risk alienating friends and their broader social network."

It's easy to make assumptions about those who are different from you. But you know what helps? Actually talking to them. I've found brokers in rural Texas are dealing with issues that would sound familiar to those on the coasts.

Browse the September digital edition of BenefitsPRO magazine.

And this month's Face of Change interview with NYC-based Colleen Blum is a good reminder for those who make assumptions about the city. Yes, Blum's clients include actresses and celebrities, but also mom and pop shops and small business owners.

There's growing unity among advisors across the country who are working to fix our broken health care system. As Chris Yarn writes of declining quality of care and devastatingly high medical bills in, "You're the reason so many Americans want single-payer," "I do not think that is what any Republican or Democrat wants for their fellow man."

It's easy to surround yourself with what's comfortable and safe. But don't give in. Read widely. Resist assumptions. Embrace empathy. Talk to people who look and live differently than you. I promise you, we're not as different as we seem.

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Finding our common ground

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