On Friday afternoon, after leaving a training session with Cam Connections, one of my favorite clients, I stopped at a Starbucks to knock out a few hours of work. As I got out of my car, a homeless man in a wheel chair yelled at me: “Sir, will you buy me something to eat?” I answered: “Sure, what do you want?” He surprised me with his reply: “I don’t know, push me up there, will you?”
This guy was unreal. He bossed me around all the way to the end. After paying for his meal, he asked me to push him over to a table. Unfortunately, he wanted to be near an outlet to charge his phone and nothing was open. He didn’t give up – he asked one of the patrons if he could have his seat because he needed the outlet. The customer politely moved. When my new friend got settled, he looked back at me as to inquire where his meal was. After I gave him everything, he didn’t offer a hint of appreciation. Guess what? I didn’t care, and that made all the difference in my afternoon.
Am I perfect? No. I knew this wasn’t going to be an ideal situation as soon as I engaged with him. At first, my instincts were to react bitterly, but I told myself to not expect any appreciation or even a good attitude. Really… I had that conversation with myself. The result was a funny story to tell my wife later.
We get so wrapped up in demanding respect and appreciation that it ruins our days. I’m not saying that you should accept a lack of appreciation from your spouse or your boss, but don’t get all psycho when you let someone into your lane of traffic and they don’t acknowledge it. Your response will mean nothing to that person, but it will affect the quality of your day.
Sometime this week, I’ll hold open a door for someone and they’ll walk right through without saying “thank you”. I’ll get pissed and I’ll be distracted for a few minutes or more. Hopefully I’ll have the same proactive conversation with myself that I had on Friday, because it’s just not worth it.
