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Today's
quotation:
The other day I was in the grocery store and
witnessed an incredible display of patience.
The checkout clerk had just been chewed out by an angry
customer, clearly without good cause.
Rather than being reactive, the clerk defused the anger by
remaining calm. When it
was my turn to pay for my groceries I said to her, “I’m so
impressed at the way you handled that customer.”
She looked me right in the eye and said, “Thank you, sir.
Do you know you are the first person ever to give me a
compliment in this store?” It
took less than two seconds to let her know, yet it was a highlight of
her day, and of mine.
Richard Carlson
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Today's
Meditation:
Compliments
have one of the greatest returns on investment of anything
in life, much like encouragement. The actual
investment is zero-- a compliment costs us nothing at
all. The potential return, though, is not
measurable. The effect that our compliments can have
on other people is simply beyond measure, and the
cumulative effect of many compliments, of course, can be
even more astounding.
Most
of us don't tend to do a lot of complimenting,
though. For various reasons we get so caught up in
our own lives, so focused on our own needs, that we don't
even realize just how much of a contribution we can make
to the lives of others if we were to share just a few
positive words about another person, if we were to tell
another person how much we appreciate the contributions he
or she has made to the world.
I
remember having dinner in a small restaurant once, and the
waitress "especially" recommended the mashed
potatoes. Whenever I hear something like that, I
order the special recommendation, and after we ate, I made
a point of complimenting the potatoes, which
really were quite good. "Thank you," she
said. "I made them myself." She was
very proud of her potatoes, and very glad to hear the
compliment. I had made a small contribution towards
brightening her day, and it hadn't cost me a cent-- just a
few words.
We
can add to the positive energy of this world very
simply. Life is about energy, and the more positive
energy there is in the world, the better things are for
all of us. All it takes to add to it is a compliment
here, and a compliment there, sincere words that recognize
another person's contributions and lift that person up,
even in the smallest of ways.
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