I've had the privilege in the past few weeks to get some feedback from some individuals that I've made an impact in their lives. Some of that feedback came in the moment, some of it came later when I found out a previous conversation was really meaningful to someone. I understand that the nature of my work puts me in situations where I am having deeper conversations with people, but I am often surprised when I hear how much of an impact I have been honored to have in someone else's life.
When I reflect on this in my own life, I am able to see there have been many moments along the way where a well-timed word of encouragement or shared piece of wisdom had a significant impact on me. And similar to myself, when I share with the person what our encounter meant to me, they are often surprised by the impact they had on me.
I guess maybe I should stop being surprised that we affect each other in this way. After all, I don't find it surprising when I hear about hurts or pains that we can inflict on each other, so why wouldn't the opposite also be true in a positive way?
My point this week is this: Being aware of the impact we have on others around us (both good and bad) gives us an opportunity to be more mindful and intentional about that impact. What if by recognizing this fact we could work to limit our negative impact and increase our positive impact? For example, what if we knew there was one person this week we were meant to impact positively, and so we just kept our eyes and ears open to see if we could discover who it was and take action on that moment? And what if in the process of paying better attention, we were more mindful of our words and actions toward others, perhaps choosing to speak in a kinder way than we might normally be tempted to in a stressful situation? And what if when we saw an opportunity to speak a word of encouragement, we didn't let it pass as a fleeting idea, but we actually acted on it because we didn't want to miss it if that was "the one" for this week?
Bottom line, our words and actions are making an impact on the people around us, and being more mindful of that reality can help us minimize pain and maximize kindness. Who knows, a simple, kind word may make way more of a difference than you think it does!
Here's to being Mindful of Our Impact this week!
Be Well,
Stephen
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