How to Be a Bucket Filler
It’s not that you don’t know how, it’s just that you might have forgotten.
Last week I got myself into a parking lot pickle. I drove down one of the rows and when I got to the end, it was blocked off by a long row of traffic cones. When I looked in my rear-view window to turn around, I saw that line of cars had followed me, so I was blocked in.
I considered my options: turn on a podcast and wait for the cars behind me to move or get out and move the cones myself so I could get through.
Since I’m impatient, I hopped out of my truck and grabbed the cones. Seeing my situation, a passerby jogged over and told me, “Hey, go ahead and drive out — I’ll put all the cones back!”
When I got back in the truck, I had to explain the whole situation — including the mild rule-breaking — to my inquisitive four-year-old son.
“Mom, that guy just filled your bucket,” he commented.
Bucket filling starts young
Both of my kids learned about “Bucket Filling” at daycare, but it’s something we should all be thinking about. The basic idea is that everyone has a bucket inside them. If you do something kind or helpful for a person, you are filling their bucket. When you are mean, rude, or hurtful, you are spilling their bucket. I guess the bucket is filled…
