I have recently been reading Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Win Friends & Influence People”. I highly suggest you add it to your personal library. In one of the first chapters, I came across the following quote. It deeply resonated with me, so much so that I had to find it, order it, frame it, and hang it in my home as a daily reminder!
“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any living creature and human being, let me do it NOW. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”
A study mentioned in another chapter of the book was that of The New York Telephone Company who made a detailed study of telephone conversations to find out which word is the most frequently used—the pronoun “I”. It was used 3,900 times in 500 telephone conversations! Additionally, think about all the photos you take, especially living in the digital age of social media that we do. When you see a group photograph that you are in, whose picture do you look for first? Don’t deny that you’re not the first person you look for!
We only seem to be interested in others when they are first interested in us. We must work together to change this mentality! Let us FIRST be interested in OTHERS. Let’s be the rare individual that goes out of his or her way to do things for other people—things that require time, energy, magnanimity and thoughtfulness. In Alfred Adler’s book “What Life Should Mean to You”, he writes, “It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow men who has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others. It is from such individuals that all human failures spring.”
Each day presents us with a choice to live either selfishly or self-LESS-ly. Next time you see someone in need, stop what you’re doing and offer them a hand. I promise you he or she will be inspired to pay it forward because of your gracious selflessness and in turn, your heart will also feel good. Kindness begets further kindness. Good begets more good. From the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi “Make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned…”
Kindness is the easiest language to communicate. Even the blind can see it and the deaf can hear it. It takes just one act of kindness to change a heart, a mind, a person, and ultimately, the world—a world we only pass through but once. Do good; be kind; do it NOW. Do not defer or neglect it for we shall not pass this way again.
