Honoring What Inspires You
In our travels west, after spending Christmas in Maryland with Ben’s family, we’re served by countless members of wait staff, clerks, hotel staff, and other people in the service industry. And it’s easy to let them all just blur into a faceless mob as we’re rapidly heading west.
But this evening, I had the great pleasure to be able to give to inspiration. We stopped for the night and the only available restaurant was a chain – NOT our favorite. The wait staff all seemed really harried and hurried – even though the place was only about half full. It took over 40 minutes just to get our food.
When we were at the counter paying, I asked if they were short staffed in the kitchen because it had taken so long to get our food. The rather hassled looking young woman answered that about an hour before we got there, the fire suppression system had gone off in the kitchen – soaking EVERYTHING and creating a complete system restart. I instantly had a different view of the wait! (And why everybody was looking so stressed.)
As Ben was finishing his credit card transaction, the manager swooped in and cancelled it – saying that 40 minutes was outrageous and dinner was on her. Wow! (I really hadn’t been fishing for a discount; just an answer!)
Are you honoring what inspires you as 2015 comes to a close? Click To TweetBut as she was cancelling the transaction, and we were thanking her, I said that I did want to tip the waitress, Brittany, who had done a fabulous job taking care of us. Both Brittany and the manager looked shocked that I still wanted to tip.
What I was doing was honoring an inspiring young woman (she was all of about 17) who kept her cool, her smile, and her composure as she was clearly feeling so stressed.
In these last weeks of the year (and in the next few weeks) you’ll see dozens of articles about setting goals for 2016. I encourage you to read them. But instead of spending all this time in reflection and planning, I invite you to do something else:
Reach out to somebody who inspires you.
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