Have you ever experienced the power of someone else's words?I had this experience with a friend. I'd been thinking of writing a serial fiction set in Denver. I practiced with a short serial fiction on a friend's blog. We were talking about the piece when he said something like, "I was trying to figure out where in Denver the story happened." Simple words. Yet they launched me into working on Denver Cereal.
I can't count the number of times I stopped doing something because of something someone said. I stopped writing because a college professor told me I'd never be able to write a college English paper. I stopped running because I was told I 'couldn't' because of my back injury. The list goes on and on.
Most people are more than willing to tell you NOT to do something - anything. There's nothing more cruel than encouraging someone to be luke warm, mediocre and to not try.
Sure, if you don't try, you won't fail. If you don't try, you won't fall flat on your face. But what's so wrong with falling? What's the big deal about losing? Who cares if you fail?
We all fall. We all fail. We all lose.
Why not encourage people to try? Why not say go for it? What do we have to lose?
My kindness challenge for this week is to encourage everyone I interact with this week. I will shuck the self loathing and cruelty that goes along with telling someone what they cannot do.
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