I heard a great story this weekend about a little boy, maybe 3 or 4 years old, who would play with his little, blue toy car. He would take this car with him everywhere.
His grandmother was so happy with seeing him play with this toy car that she went out and bought him 10 more cars. A couple weeks went by and she noticed that he wasn’t playing with ANY of the cars.
The grandmother asked him, “Why don’t you play with your cars anymore?” The boy simply responded, “I cannot love lots of cars.”
We are overwhelmed with the idea that more is better. That keeping up with the Joneses is not only what we should do, but that it is a necessity.
This weekend, I was also reminded of the theory of the lollipop moment — a moment where someone said or did something that made your life fundamentally better. I think we all have those, right? Now the real question is, how many of you have told that person about that? Probably very few of us have.
You have created a lollipop moment for another person. Don’t believe me? Think about how many lollipop moments you have had in your life and how many of them you have (not) shared.
Now these first two stories are seemingly unrelated, but I have been thinking about both quite a bit over the past few days. I was contemplating them and this morning it really hit me as to why.
A client confided in me that her close friend’s son committed suicide. This young man was smart, highly educated, full of promise, and on the path to being successful in anything he would want to pursue.
I do not know him and I never will get that pleasure but I will say this: You never know what other people are going through.
You never know the struggle of another person. You can assume you know all you want, but, most of the time, you will be wrong. You can say all of the things you want, but it always gets back to them.
I cannot imagine getting to the point in my life where I feel that the best possible option for me is to disappear. Too many people are filled with hate, negativity, misconceptions and assumptions. If we put as much time into bettering ourselves as we did gossiping or tearing down people, we would all be in much better spots.
More is not better. It doesn’t mean someone is happier. It doesn’t mean everything is okay. There are so many people who have tons of money, tons of friends and tons of work, and they are miserable.
If someone has changed your life for the better in any way and you haven’t told him or her, let that person know because tomorrow is not a guarantee for any of us. We never know when our last goodbyes will happen.
Laugh a little harder, smile a little bigger and love a little more today.
The Pursuit of Excellence in Life 