Feeling pessimistic, negative, angry, frustrated, arrogant, difficult, uncompassionate, unkind, unempathetic, ignorant, incompetent, inconsistent, selfish, deceptive, disinterested?

I’ve been pessimistic, negative, angry, frustrated, arrogant, difficult, uncompassionate, unkind, unempathetic, ignorant, incompetent, inconsistent, selfish, deceptive, disinterested.

I’ve also been optimistic, positive, patient, attentive, fun, confident, humble, compassionate, kind, empathic, competent, knowledgeable, consistent, selfless, loving, honest, truthful, curious.

I’ve been all of it.

I say this because something in our brain wants to stereotype so that we can make sense of people.

Our brain wants to make them the worst version we encountered in our to protect ourselves.

We can and often do inadvertently bring this person forward.

I’ve been all of it.

I strive to be and become consistently the second list.

I believe that that’s what everyone else is trying to do too.

It helps me to remember two things:

1. What causes me to consistently demonstrate the version I my I most want to be.

2. That I am a part of the world and therefore part of other peoples recipe, who ever they show up as.

Something as simple as a smile might transform everyone you interact with today