Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, thank you, congratulate someone on something that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason.
Charles Plumb, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, was a jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent six years in a communist prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.
One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, “You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!”
“How in the world did you know that?” asked Plumb.
“I packed your parachute,” the man replied.
Plumb couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about that man. He wondered how many times he might have seen him and not even said good morning, because you see, he was a fighter pilot and the man was just a sailor. Plumb thought of the many hours that sailor had spent in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he did not know.
Now Plumb asks his audience, “Who is packing your parachute?”
As you go through your week, month, and even each © 2005, recognize and appreciate the people who have packed your parachute and supported your life.
So now, I have a challenge for you. For the next 24 hours, 7 days a week, find something good to say to absolutely everyone who crosses your path. If you study someone long enough, you can always find something good to say. You might have to study some longer than others, but it can be done. If you do this for me for one week, by the end of that week, it will become easier, and the week after that, you will begin doing it for yourself. By the end of the third week, you will have established a habit into your life. Your life will change immediately, because people like to be around other people who make them feel good about themselves. And your circle of friends and acquaintances will grow very quickly.
Remember: we were not put on this earth to live alone, but to reach out to others.
--Author Unknown