Maybe….
Aside from your family, close friends and work colleagues, think about the numbers of people you come into contact with on a daily basis.
It could be someone on the bus or subway…it could be a person in a car next to you or someone that maybe cut you off while driving. It could be the Uber driver or taxi cab driver.
It could be people in line at the coffee shop or the barista serving you your morning beverage.
At work it could people who you’ve never spoken to calling in to make an inquiry, or the gas station attendant who takes your credit card when you want to pay.
It could be the same garbage collector who comes every second Tuesday.
We don’t realize how many people we come into contact with every single day. What is equally amazing is that those interactions can help shape the quality of your day.
I just saw a video online of two older gentlemen…one on a bicycle, the other in a pick-up truck who were beating the crap out of each other because of an altercation while driving — “road rage”. The guy in pick up truck beat the “bejesus” out of the cyclist…blood oozing from his head probably because the cyclist got in the way of where this guy was going. My understanding is the driver of the pick up truck got arrested for aggravated assault.
Before this encounter, they were just two dudes minding their business. They interacted with one another resulting with a brutal physical encounter. I wonder how the rest of their day went?
Who you interact with and how you interact with them can really make the difference between a great day and a shitty day.
Maybe the next time I am waiting impatiently in line for my Grande Bold from Starbucks and the person in front of me is taking forever to decide, maybe I should think about what they might be going through. Maybe someone who they interacted before me left them feeling bad about themselves or left them in a crappy mood or maybe someone cut them off on the highway or maybe they had a bad weekend and Monday felt even nastier than it usually feels.
Its hard to stop and think like this when the speed of life frantically passes by. Maybe we need to all slow down and be kinder to one another and empathic towards each other….it might just make your day much better.
Maybe.
