I'm not sure why I'm finding so many articles and videos analogous to our lives and our journeys towards better health lately, but as I lay in bed this morning listening to the sound of silence, my beautiful little 3-year old daughter asleep in her room.... I read another.
This article tells the story of a young athlete from Tennesee who stops mid- race to help a fallen competitor. Pretty selfless right? A kid forgoes the chance to potentially win to help someone else - their competition no less.
How many of us reading (or writing) this post get/ are so caught up in our own lives, our own goals, our own accomplishments that we overlook the people around us who are struggling with their lives or with things in their lives.
It's great to utter a few words of encouragement as we breeze by. Shit, it might just be the right words that this person needed to hear at that particular time. Lucky huh!? It would've been easy for Seth (the boy in the article) to utter a quick "come on man, get up, finish strong" as he ran by his fallen peer en route to finishing his own race - he might've even won the race, clocked a PR.
Sometimes people need more than a word or cliched race slogan as we blow by them in our lives. They need us to stop what we're doing and actually care about them. There's a big difference between appearing to care (lip service) and actually giving a rat's ass.
So be honest... Do you know someone that if you gave them 5 minutes of your time... maybe 10.... maybe an hour out of your busy schedule, it might make a marked impact on their life? Hey, I'm not suggesting that you forfeit the race... you can carry on when you feel that they're in good hands.
As human beings we are innately wired for this type of interaction - I think it's engrained somewhere within the definition of humanity. We as human (or maybe that's humane) beings are meant to be compassionate, it gives us a sense of value, a feeling of contribution to the communities in which we were intended to dwell. I guarantee, seeing someone else's life change for the better because of something you've said or done far surpasses any physical award or commendation.
While Oprah terms it "paying it forward", others tote it as "karma", one of my Twitter chums (and yes, my awesome Dad) @FC4A tweets "it will start a reaction of the same. Observe how far a little kindness can go". I dare ya.... try it!
This article tells the story of a young athlete from Tennesee who stops mid- race to help a fallen competitor. Pretty selfless right? A kid forgoes the chance to potentially win to help someone else - their competition no less.
How many of us reading (or writing) this post get/ are so caught up in our own lives, our own goals, our own accomplishments that we overlook the people around us who are struggling with their lives or with things in their lives.
It's great to utter a few words of encouragement as we breeze by. Shit, it might just be the right words that this person needed to hear at that particular time. Lucky huh!? It would've been easy for Seth (the boy in the article) to utter a quick "come on man, get up, finish strong" as he ran by his fallen peer en route to finishing his own race - he might've even won the race, clocked a PR.
Sometimes people need more than a word or cliched race slogan as we blow by them in our lives. They need us to stop what we're doing and actually care about them. There's a big difference between appearing to care (lip service) and actually giving a rat's ass.
So be honest... Do you know someone that if you gave them 5 minutes of your time... maybe 10.... maybe an hour out of your busy schedule, it might make a marked impact on their life? Hey, I'm not suggesting that you forfeit the race... you can carry on when you feel that they're in good hands.
As human beings we are innately wired for this type of interaction - I think it's engrained somewhere within the definition of humanity. We as human (or maybe that's humane) beings are meant to be compassionate, it gives us a sense of value, a feeling of contribution to the communities in which we were intended to dwell. I guarantee, seeing someone else's life change for the better because of something you've said or done far surpasses any physical award or commendation.
While Oprah terms it "paying it forward", others tote it as "karma", one of my Twitter chums (and yes, my awesome Dad) @FC4A tweets "it will start a reaction of the same. Observe how far a little kindness can go". I dare ya.... try it!
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