Making someone's day

Have you ever made someone's day?  Yesterday someone told me that I made their day (I'm paraphrasing...  to be honest they said "So thank you, and know you brightened my day.").  But, I didn't really do anything - just spoke the truth...  of course I'm happy she was impacted in this manner.  But, I'm ashamed to say I didn't do it with intent.  Imagine if we DID actually conduct our day with intent?  If we did actually TRY to make people's days?  How could you impact others?  What types of wheels would you set in motion?  Would you lead by example?  Would you turn their mood on a dime?  Would you make the sun shine on their gray day?  Would you be impacting many with one simple action?  Sure, we have the whole SBUX Pay it Forward phenom (on a side note has anyone ever paid for your order while in line in front of you?) and Haley Joel Osment made us cry in Pay It Forward, but REALLY in every day life...  what if we lived with intent?  What if we intended to make someone's day?  And not for gratification, but just because.  Because it's the right thing to do!  It's the right thing to do to support people.  It's the right thing to do to tell someone that you are proud of them.  It's the right thing to do to champion someone's success.  It's the right thing to do to speak the truth.  It's the right thing to do to pay it forward.  And sure - we might have these thoughts - but, it's the right thing to do to verbalize them.  How do we lose sight of something so simple, so easily? 

Recently my daughter is obsessed with the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today?  Maybe Mom and Dad are more obsessed with it...  I don't know.  But, it's a good lesson for everyone to learn.  It's a GREAT lesson to teach our children, and she's at an age where she really gets it.  She understands when she makes decisions with her heart, and not for our own gratification.  But, she also gets that it can make her day too, and thus her own bucket is being filled.  I'm enjoying relearning this with her, and definitely feel that adults should read this too.  I hope she holds on to it, and that it becomes part of her daily ritual.  That she not only learns to live with intent, but learns to verbalize and to communicate her thoughts.  Because you never know when you could be filling a bucket.

Do yourself a favor - spend a couple of bucks and pick up your copy today.  Sure it's a children's book, but the simple message is all we need.