The Easiest Way to Leave Someone Better Than You Found Them

My mom is amazing; she has taught me so many things in my life, but the one lesson I want to share with you is to leave it better than you found it. Specifically, how to leave people better than you found them.
Before we dive in, I think it’s important to address why this is something everyone should be mindful of. Well, what I have personally found is that when you make an active effort to leave things better than before, you’ll find that you also make yourself better in turn.
When you make an active effort to leave things better than before, you’ll find that you also make yourself better in turn.
Before we talk about the easiest way to leave someone better than you found them, I’d like to start with a story:
When I was in high school, my first job was working the drive thru at a McDonald’s. One day, a coworker turns to me after handing out an order and says, “Do you think people ever come to a McDonald’s just so someone will be nice to them?”
This may surprise you, but a lot of people laugh when I tell this story and I don’t understand why. To me, this thought is so profoundly sad, because it rang to true! Humans are not nice enough to each other — it’s so easy to get caught up so much in the day-to-day that we forget other people are fighting battles, too. But my mom taught me that the easiest way to leave someone better than you found them is to compliment them.
The easiest way to leave someone better than you found them is to compliment them.
My mother makes Leslie Knope look like a chump when it comes to giving compliments. Going anywhere with her used to be so painful as a teenager, because she would stop and talk to absolutely everybody. What was supposed to be a short trip to the store for one item always turned into this drawn-out affair, without fail.
It used to drive me nuts, but I noticed that by the time my mother walked away, that person was smiling, and all-around visibly happier. She was literally leaving them better than she found them.
Compliments cost you nothing, but can mean everything to the person you are giving them to. What my mother has shown me time and time again, is that when we leave people better than we found them, we make ourselves better too.
(This article has been transcribed from a lightning talk I gave at a PDX Women in Tech event.)
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