E ver heard the phrase, “Misery loves company”? Well, I ran into one of misery’s cousins named “complainy” a few days ago and found out that complainy loves company too.
As I was standing in line at the local grocery store the woman in front of me started complaining to me about how slow the store clerk was moving. She was visibly surprised when I made an uplifting comment with a smile. I gently stated how hard the clerk’s job must be when so many people arrive at the same time and they’re all in a hurry to get to their next destination. She definitely didn’t expect that statement to come from me.
In life, I’ve found these types of incidents to be very common and I don’t think I’m alone. I’ve also discovered that the easiest conversations to engage in with strangers are the ones where they’re complaining about something and for some odd reason politics seem to be the most popular. It’s easy for the “average” person to add to the fray by complaining too, but much tougher for the “average” person to be creative and insert a positive, uplifting comment while smiling. It appears to me that shared conflict has a knack for bringing people together for a journey down a road of complaining. May I humbly suggest that we not go down that road? The world needs “non-average” people like us sprinkled around in many areas to capitalize on the many opportunities to insert flowers of positivity where weeds of negativity are trying to grow.
So, I humbly ask that you join me today and everyday hereafter in being anything but “Average”. Don’t miss the message today. Let’s continue to lean forward and be the example as we attempt to make it GREAT.
“AVERAGE”? I think not.
