Make Someone’s Day

You see someone in your travels at work or while you're walking down a street. Your eye catches theirs and you smile. You pass each other and never think anything more of it. I wonder if that smile made an impact in their day. Did that small gesture make any difference to brighten an otherwise dull day? I believe these little gestures do. They serve to make someone’s day, and they also serve to brighten ours as we let the positive reactions and feedback of others filter into our perceptions.

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What are some things we could do as simple examples?

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~~ Make a point of listening to someone today. Allow them to steal five (or 15) minutes of your time and give them your undivided attention and empathy and respect.

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~~ Share your humour with them. Humour, so long as it’s sensitive and appropriate, is great for helping people relax and experience joy.

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~~ Help another person with something small. It could be an errand, or a little task. It could be to save them the hassle of doing a particular thing.

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~~ Initiate communications with another person who could be lifted by your email, letter or phone call. There are a lot of people who love getting correspondence.

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~~ Be really, wholly, and genuinely available to someone.

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Thomas Browne once said, “By compassion we make others’ misery our own, and so, by relieving them, we relieve ourselves also.” Albert Schweitzer also said, “Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.”

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We need to share our time and our energies with others in order to experience true joy.

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Copyright © 2008, Steven John Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.