Every day and hour… see that your image is a seemly one. You pass by a little child, you pass by spiteful, with ugly words, with wrathful heart; you may not have noticed the child, but he has seen you, and your image, unseemly and ignoble, may remain in his defenseless heart. You don’t know it, but you may have sown an evil seed in him, and it may grow… all because you did not foster in yourself an active, actively benevolent heart.
Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote those words in his masterful book, The Brothers Karamazov. Far too often we are unaware of how powerful our actions are. Certainly each of us can remember slights or “cut-downs” from our youth. Yet amazingly, rather than allowing that to make us more conscious of our choices, we seemingly create the same pain in others. Or is there something more insidious at work? Perhaps a choice to be evil in a sort of payback concept?
Regardless, by simply choosing a positive attitude, not only do we gain power and energy to accomplish great things, we impact our environment for good. In your world, how are you touching the atmosphere around you—do you bring poison to the atmosphere or is your contribution healing and positive?
Today, determine that you will see those around you. Make everyone whose path you cross, whether the barista at Starbucks, the cashier guy at the 7/11 or the person who takes out the trash in your office building, feel special. See them. Be polite. They are as human as you are.