A Small Coupon

"In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed." -Khalil Gibran

Okay all of you frequent air travelers. You are missing out on a great opportunity to make someone else's day a whole lot better. All it takes is one sheet of paper and the heart to share a little kindness.

I would call this a "call to action" to each of you. An act that will brighten the experience of a "not so frequent" air traveler. It will also make you feel a little better inside, knowing that you did something nice.

What I am referring to are those coupons that you receive when checking in for your flight online. Delta provides these as I am sure other airlines do for their frequent travelers.

So what can you do with these?

While the fine print says that these coupons are non-transferable, here is what you can do. While boarding your plane, the first flight attendant you see when entering the plane, hand it to them. Tell the flight attendant that you would like them to give this to a military person or possibly a young person (student maybe), or a young family flying with children.

That is all you need to do. Quietly you walk away knowing that someone is secretly being blessed by your generosity. There is no need for fanfare or acknowledgement. As a frequent traveler, you get plenty of benefits along the way. So why not gift someone else?

The flight attendants are very appreciative of your kindness. It brings a smile to their face knowing one more person on a crowded flight is smiling as well. Spread some joy into the lives of others and experience what it does in your life.

Stay inspired my friends!

Merging With Life

"Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light." ~Norman B. Rice

Every work day, there is a long and sometimes crowded freeeway merge I have to endure. The traffic flowing southbound is moving rather quickly. There are cars, semi-trucks, vans and every known type of vehicle speeding towards some destination. It can be a challenge for many drivers to merge into this moving mass of traffic smoothly.

One can watch the seasoned driver adjust speed and gracefully slide into an opening in the lane of traffic. Others are more timid and brake, speed up, brake again, unsure of where to position themselves. We then have those that simply stop, scared to move or risk the adventure of freeway traffic.

Life for many can be like our last merging traffic driver. Too afraid to engage or risk the adventure, they sit at the end of the on ramp. The driver behind them in life will try to coax them along. It could be with the beep of a horn or an encouraging word. Sometimes this works, and sometimes we simply drive around them.

It is too bad that many pull over and never get on the freeway. They park their car on the median and watch life drive by. An emergency vehicle comes along to assist them, to encourage them. That emergency vehicle could be a spouse, a friend or a co-worker. That emergency vehicle could be you.

Life can be described as merging and exiting the stream of traffic. It is a journey that we can either take part in or sit idly by along the median. And each of us can be the driving instructor, encouraging someone off the side of the road and into traffic.

Leave the hand gestures and words of rage buried deep in the ground. Decide to lift up the other person and help them along. You never know what great things an opportunity such as meeting and helping another person will have on your life.

Stay inspired my friends!

Rolling to Accomplishment

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." -Walt Disney

Here we are late in the year, nine and one-half months later when we first proposed and proclaimed a list of New Year resolutions. The process has been some what like a pregnancy and the birth of achieving your goals is nearing. The road has had its ups and downs, but that is what life is.

Each step along the way, you have worked on maintaining a full and balanced "wheel of life". This wheel has taken you on quite a journey this year and carried you to where you find yourself today.

When one spoke (area) in your life became broken, you fixed it. You knew that if one spoke became damaged, the wheel was incomplete and would not carry you smoothly. As a wheel becomes unbalanced, the harder it is to gain and maintain momentum. It can be nearly impossible to get any where in life with an unbalanced wheel. It becomes a constant struggle.

But you you know better than that. You have worked hard to keep your wheel round and balanced. You have worked on those areas of life that needed attention. You tended to the out of balance spokes, you have kept your life moving forward.

Keep your life rolling forward, meeting the goals you set at the beginning of the year. When December 31 arrives, you will have accomplished so much and realized what a smooth ride it had been compared to the previous year.

Keep on rolling, keep on riding down the path, keep enjoying the journey. And stay inspired my friends.

Holding a Door

"Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same." - Anonymous

When I travel, the greatest thing I get to do is watch people. It is fun to simply observe the interactions of people as they go about their day. Some may think of it as voyeurism and it probably is. I think of it more as simply observing my surroundings. Learning the different cultures and behaviors of individuals.

During a business trip to London, I had this same opportunity to sight see and to experience the everyday hustle and bustle of London City life. This included using the London Underground with its congested trains to elbowing my way through the crowded floors of Harrods Department Store.

Close personal contact with people is going to be a given. And all of this close and personal interaction allows one an opportunity to engage in doing small things for others. Small things that simply make another person's day a litle bit nicer.

There are opportunities to hold open a door for others when entering a building. One can even be more pleasant and accomodating to restaurant servers trying scratch out a living wage. My firm belief is that simply being nice to another human can impact their life in a positive way.

To see that person smile in return means so much and it likely means they will pass on the kind gesture. With kindness emanating from you, the kindness will move from you to another and another. But it has to start somewhere and it might as well be you.

Remember not to wait, don't think about it, don't analyze it....just do something.

It becomes habit over time and of course you'll notice a change in yourself. The act of giving is really a means of growing within yourself. Be of cheer when you least want to. Work your way through your down times. See how your life can improve by the mere action of giving kindness to another person.

Stay inspired my friends!