Treat everyone you meet like it could be their last day on Earth

March 18th and 19th was two days packed in at Loudermilk Center for this years WordCamp Atlanta.

600 or so people spread across two days and almost 50 sessions that could be attended.  I was lucky enough to present on a topic myself the last day. Wash each day down with an after party and the amount of people you come across is sky high.

From March 21st through 26th I was in Miami. First for a mastermind with around 20 folks from a professional group I’m a part of called WP Elevation (a bunch of nerds building websites 🙂 ) and then into another Saturday/Sunday for WordCamp Miami, similar to Atlanta, except with more people.

I’m still trying to digest everything I learned, was inspired by, and wrote down to revisit later.

The gist of this is that I met and talked with an enormousness amount of people for such a short period of time.

One person said something to me in passing that struck me the most, and later proved to be walking that walk, not just talking the talk. If I had to choose one specific take-away from the entire week it would be this:

“Treat everyone you meet like it could be their last day on Earth”

I don’t know where he picked this up but when I heard it, it was powerful.

Don’t be a d*$@

As I get older I am continuing to work on my balance between staying focused and completely losing my ____.

There are so many opportunities in a single day where I could let myself get riled up and angry.

People don’t know how to drive…

Client work coming in from all customers at once…

Stepped in dog … …

Traffic!

When I was a child I understand I was a bit obnoxious. My family would ignore it until someone couldn’t take it any more. All I know is that I could have been better, but I was so young that I don’t blame myself 🙂

Now that I am fully aware, there is no one else to blame but myself so it’s much more important that I continue to check myself.

I try to live under the golden rule as much as I can.

“Treat others as you would have them treat you.”

It’s not as hard as people seem to make it. Keep your cool and be respectful of those around you. Especially if something is completely out of your control (ie. anyone that has not yet learned what ‘yield’ means).

You get to choose how you react.

You also get to choose how you interact with others.

Be proactive with kindness

Going back to the title of this post, I want to touch on being more proactive with kindness.

It’s one thing to be passive and not let other peoples ridiculousness get you all crazy, but it’s another to really push out the positive vibes without the desire for reciprocity.

The day after this person shared this quote with me the whole group parted ways.

A few hours later we see a Live video in our Facebook group with him sitting next to a new friend he had made at the local Starbucks.  In chatting he found out that his new friend ran a Non-Profit that goes out once a month with “Love Bags” full of food, soap, toothbrush/paste, water, etc. They pass these out to homeless, prostitutes, underprivileged children, etc.

They have about 80 people that go out and are growing fast.

Most of the Love Bags contents are purchased out of pocket by the volunteers.

They did not have a website or a way for interested parties to donate…at least not for long.

Without hesitation, and in just over 12 hours time, the crew from WP Elevation that had just met up in Miami for a mastermind to work on their own business threw together a full site for M28 Missions.

Talk about being proactive.

One day at a time

Remembering to treat everyone with a bit more sensitivity isn’t always going to be easy. I definitely want to push some negativity when people are being dumb, that’s just human nature.

I will however do my best to continually be conscious of my actions and how they will effect others.

I will also make a push to be more proactive with kindness with my time and ability.

Thanks Colin!