Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
-- Leo Buscaglia

This Monday morning, on your way in to the office, you traveled the same route you do each work day. You impassively passed by the morning walkers, joggers, and porch sitting coffee drinkers in your neighborhood. You expressionlessly drove around the mailman and the other morning travelers leaving their driveways. You stopped by your usual morning eatery to get your regular sausage biscuit with grape jelly, hash brown, and strong cup of coffee and indifferently handed the cashier your money. You apathetically passed the people on the corner with their signs for work and food; you disinterestedly saw the bus stop regulars climbing aboard; and you impassively passed the guy who rides his bicycle in to work every morning.

When you greeted your teammate with a soulless grunt, you didn’t notice the look of anguish on his face, the one that begged for someone to listen to the story of his weekend and hear the pained words on his heart. Instead, you nonchalantly headed for your office and, trying not to appear aloof, decided against shutting your door. You began solemnly digging into your work responsibilities, deliberately shutting down every opportunity for morning banter and affability.

During the regular Monday morning team meeting, you vehemently attacked every review, criticized each plan of action, and stalemated the advancement of the current team project. While your assessments may have been accurate and astute, their delivery was less than civil and genteel.

By mid-morning, you had managed to ignore, discount, and annoy the people you live around each day. What real difference have you made in the world today? And in what shape did you leave your home?

Sure, Monday mornings are a drag. It’s hard to recover from even the mildest weekend of just sleeping in. But is that any reason to treat the world around you with disregard?

Imagine the warmth a smile to the porch sitters and walkers would have generated this morning. Imagine if you’d smiled and said “thank you” to the cashier at the restaurant, the next person in line may have had a better chance at receiving more gracious service. A simple “good morning!” to the corner people probably would have made them feel less invisible, and had you simply engaged your teammate in clearing his mind and heart, maybe you’d be guaranteed a more amiable working relationship and environment and maybe you could have taken into consideration the hard work others put into their jobs, gently critiquing their efforts, helping them to make the most of constructive criticism.

Maybe you wouldn’t now be looking for an aspirin to alleviate your headache and the pain in your shoulders.

Maybe you’d get more work done.

Maybe you wouldn’t get ignored on your way home.

Sadiqqa © 2007