Let’s Change the Dialogue

We hear complaints all the time. If the food at a restaurant comes out cold, the customer will complain and send it back. If an employee makes a mistake, their boss will reprimand them. If our friend or partner says or does something we don’t appreciate, we let them know, and if someone is trailing toilet paper on their shoe we will (I hope) say something to them.

Basically, if something goes wrong, we speak up. But what about when things are going right?

So often people think something nice, but feel too shy to speak up. When I was younger, my mother always had to say something. As a shy little girl, paranoid about how the world perceived me, I was mortified. Now that I’m a semi-adult, I have morphed into my bold mother, and I speak up just like she does.

She taught me an important lesson, though, that mother of mine. She taught me that people often are quick to say something negative to someone, and very few times say something nice.

It isn’t hard to give someone a compliment. It takes only seconds of your life, but could change the course of a person’s day, week, month, year, life, etc.

It may sound melodramatic, but it’s not.

So, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with my life, right? I’m writing and writing and trying to find ways to make money and be a functioning member of society and what not. In the midst of all this chaos, I wondered, “Does my writing really even matter?” After all, my main goal of writing is to affect my readers, to bring about change, to provoke thought, to talk about things that matter not only to me, but to others. I wondered if I was really even making an impact at all.

Then I had someone reach out to me. He told me he often shared my blog posts with a women’s empowerment group in Ecuador. (If you’re reading this, hi ladies!!) He said they get together and, after reading my posts, discuss the topics I write about. Knowing I was impacting a group of women thousands of miles away brought me to tears. It motivated me to keep writing, in hopes that I could continue to speak to people who are excited to listen, or, in this case, to read.

Then, a few days ago, a University of Florida student reached out to me to tell me how my blog was impacting and speaking to her. She thanked me for “saying so much of what needs to be said”.

Her words inspired me to write this post because they had such an incredibly positive impact on me. She took the time out of her own day to give me a compliment, rather than simply reading my posts and moving on.

If we all took a few minutes, or even just seconds, to compliment one another, to say one nice thing, think about how much positivity we would be spreading and putting out into the world. It could be something small like a person’s style or their hair, or something big like their talents or passions or, better still, their character.

So, let’s spread the joy, my loves. Get out there and give someone a compliment. Tell them what a great job they’re doing, or that you’re proud of them for the way they are always kind and patient with people. Tell them you’ve always admired their ability to spread joy, or the motivation they demonstrate in the pursuit of their passions.

“Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it.” -Albert Schweitzer

Sending you all my love today and always, my little chickadees.

Now get out there and be awesome.