A Simple Lesson with a Powerful Meaning

I was reminded just this morning...

A few days ago, I called the doctor to ask some questions about a few tests I wanted to run. Since I don’t have insurance, I was hoping to get a bit of an idea of what I could expect price-wise.

Not possible. I had to wait and see what the doctor ordered.

Fair enough.

Fast forward to this morning, with me talking to the doctor.

I told her the tests I wanted to run, just like on the phone.

“Oh, we can’t even run those tests.”

So I guess you couldn’t have told me that on the phone and saved me an hour of my time and money…?

The whole situation was comical, to say the least. But it reminded me of one of the most important things I was taught by my parents and still live by.

Keep the best interests of other people in mind.

Humans have an uncanny ability to detect when someone doesn’t have our best interests in mind. It’s like a fluid that oozes out of them. But it’s more than that. I think we, as humans, have a profound lack of awareness of how influential we are to the world around us.

Everything we interact with is potential. Potential we can influence towards good or bad based on the decisions we make. In the same way, the people and things we interact with have a profound effect on us, pulling us to higher ground or weighing us down.

I heard once that you’re only one idea away from changing your life, and to an extent, that’s true. Ideas are the direct combination of the environment we surround ourselves with and the information we take in. So while doom scrolling may not have an immediate effect, I would argue that activities like that are a form of self-restriction. The potential that’s inside you is being weighed down by the junk we take in.

For myself, it makes me far more self-focused, and when my attention is pointed inward, it becomes much harder to positively affect the people around me.

I like to think about it in two cycles.

The first is breaking out of the restrictions we have lapsed into. These are the “don’t do ____” that everyone talks about.

The second part is my favorite, though. Because once out of the self-restriction, we can start focusing outward and make better decisions. We can begin influencing the potential around us, and in a way, expand our sphere of opportunity.

The second part is essential, because otherwise it’s pure selfishness. Ironicly enough, I’ve found that if I only do the first part, breaking the restrictions, and don’t extend outward to those around me, I almost always fall back to where I was before.

That order is important, though. It means, before you march off to tell others what to do, get your own behaviors in order. At least in those areas.

I’m so grateful my parents taught me this. It’s simple, but it extends farther than you may think.

Keep the best interests of other people in mind.