Finding The Courage to Do Good

One of my new year's resolutions was to actually compliment strangers when I pass by them and think, "What a cute scarf!" or "Love how she did her hair!" Who doesn't love to hear they look nice? I've always been too shy and embarrassed, for whatever reason, to give strangers a compliment. Even when I'm with my good girlfriends, half the time, I think of a compliment while conversing with them, like, "Her eye liner looks so good today," and I forget to actually say it. Anyways, I've been working hard on saying it. 

Then, I realized, I can take this to the next level and do it. I can be a doer, whenever the opportunity presents itself. Brene Brown, author of The Gifts of Imperfection and Daring Greatly (and another book, I don't have), inspired me! I saw her on Oprah's Super Soul Sunday (Sorry if you're an anti-Oprah peep, but I think she's great) and I am obsessed with this show! I am enlightened every Sunday, it's awesome. Brene Brown was on and talking about vulnerability and how it is actually the door that leads to everything. Being some one who has always had a hard time feeling vulnerable in any situation, this really resonated with me and made so much sense! I could go on and on about all the awesome input about life she shared, but the main thing is you need to be vulnerable to get to courage and courage can take you places you can never, even imagine! 

So, then I found myself leaving the grocery store parking lot. It was pouring rain here, in Austin, Texas. There was a man walking through the parking lot and I could tell he had no place warm he was headed to. The rain was just pounding him in the face and I just drove right on by. Then I looked down in my driver's door pocket and saw an umbrella. I thought, "Gosh, I should have offered him that. Oh well." And I drove a little further. Then, I thought, "NO! This is an opportunity. Opportunities come in little moments and that was a moment you just missed!"

 So I turned around looking for the guy and it was like he disappeared! So then I thought, "Crap! I just totally failed a test the universe threw at me. That was some angel and I suck as a human being!" But then, thankfully, I saw him! He had started to head through some trees and I zipped up by the curb and started yelling, "HELLO!!" He turned around and headed towards my car, I held out the umbrella and just said, "Do you want this?" He was so shocked. He replied with, "Are you serious?" "Yes, I don't need it." Then his eyes lit up and he said, "We need more people like you." Then he walked off with his umbrella opened, shielded from the rain :). 

Ahhh, yes! Courage for the win!! Now, I'm not telling this story to get a pat on the back, I'm just telling it, because even though, I was very nervous and uncomfortable, basically following a homeless man, I made myself vulnerable in that moment and ended up with the courage to offer him an umbrella and hopefully made his day a little better. 

I feel like, everyone (especially, me) thinks there is going to be some big moment to prove themselves as a great human being. Some heroic circumstance, where you prevail, but that's not the case. It starts in very small instances, in your everyday life. And you know what the awesome thing is? You make some one else's day better, but you actually feel great about yourself  as well. It makes you feel so good, that you want to do more of it! And then bam! All of a sudden, you're a great human lending a hand left and right and making your immediate world a better place and inspiring others to do the same and it just snowballs! 

So the point is, be vulnerable and be courageous. Work on it. They are not innate features; they are attributes we need to work on. Happy Monday, Bring the Happiers :).