Make my day!

Do you ever stop and consider how many people make your life possible? I know you are one key factor.  But look around at everything in your life for a moment and contemplate this question:

Who made your day possible?

So here’s what I mean…

I wake up to my alarm on my phone.  Wow thanks to all the people at a certain computer company I am able to use my phone as an alarm. I also am able to listen to a sound that I enjoy waking up to.

I roll over in bed for 10 more minutes of snooze (yes I am one of those people). Wow thanks to all the people who created my sleeping experience. There are the gorgeous cotton sheets and my warm blankets. There is the comfy pillow topped mattress and firm pillow. All of these items required an amazing team of people to not only manufacture and distribute the items but create them. Someone had to be inspired by the idea of even making these items.  And they are considered essentials to me, things I at times take for granted.

I listen to the sounds around me.  I hear birds. Not just one type but a variety. These are not man made. Yet I am so grateful that the town planners and councillors of my area made the backyard of my house a reserve and park. How grateful I am to have nature amongst all the dwellings.

Then I hear the faint and distant noise of the cars carrying people to work or school or shops. I think of all the people going where they need to go and getting there. The cars, buses, ferries, bikes, trains are all making this happen.  Yes there can be traffic and yes there can be delays but most of the time all flows on schedule and we get where we need to go.

I get up. I follow through on my morning routine. In each step I realise that I would not be able to do a lot of my basic functions with comfort if it were not for a whole range of businesses and people. There are people making sure that my water runs and is clean. There are people making sure that my electricity is on and works. I take this for granted but when I think about it these people really make my day and they don’t even know me.

I take time for my meditation. Today I choose to listen to a pre-recorded one from a teacher in a program I am doing. Wow. Here I am in my house able to listen to her guide me through a balancing meditation. I am able to reconnect to the experience and really feel like I am in a workshop or a class. I know I don’t need to have the recording to meditate. Yet as I am doing the learning for this class I so appreciate that I can access my teacher’s guidance whenever and wherever I want. Thanks again to willing teachers and the advances in technology I take for granted some days.

I keep going through my day. Having meals, doing my work, helping my family, connecting with people at the shops doing errands. In every moment I am using a product, accessing a service or relying on a facility of some sort to enable my choice of action.  Each time I look around me I am in awe that so many businesses exist to serve me, little ‘ole me. Yes all these companies exist to serve me (and a few other million or so). I just forgot.

So I am truly grateful. Yet this is more than gratitude.

Now here’s the question I ask. I wonder if the people in these businesses feel the same way? Are they as excited as I am about using their products, services and facilities? I wonder if when they sit down at their desk they realise that they are making not just my day but a whole lot of other people’s days?

Do you ever wonder about your day from either perspective - whether recipient or provider?

Not likely because what do we focus on in our society? We focus on when things go wrong. We highlight the broken, the bad, the wrong. We blow the little issues into big ones. We lose perspective. We forget. Whether on the inside making someones day happen or being the one experiencing your day we need perspective, BIG TIME!

This perspective is far more than having gratitude. It is about taking the time to really connect with and understand the way a community works. Whether on a small scale - e.g. household, or large scale - e.g. whole country.

The more we can gain perspective then the more we can work together when things do go wrong. Which despite appearances is not all the time. We are not all broken, needing to be fixed. We are in fact all human beings working together to have similar experiences - enjoy each day rather than just try to get through and survive.

Yes there are people who are in crisis. Yes there are people and organisations that appear to be off track and creating more harm than good.  Yet even with this happening in our world we are more surrounded by people wanting to make our day work than not. Likewise the more we can work together in our ‘first world’ challenges the more we can direct much needed attention to those not as fortunate.

So I write with this appreciation for people and businesses in mind.

I want to see workplaces where there is a return to the focus on why we are here.

I want to see workplaces where we remember that we are in business to serve customers, clients and people just like ourselves.

I want to live in a community where we work together and collaborate rather than try to drive each other out of business.

There is room for all. We all have our own unique take on a situation. Surely there are people out there for whom our perspective will make their day too.

So I encourage you to consider not just what makes YOUR day possible but how you are also helping others make THEIR day possible. You just might surprise yourself with how important you both are in the equation.