A few days ago I was listening an interview with Steve Maraboli, a motivational speaker who was referring an experience from his childhood when his parents bought him a bike. To encourage him the first time he dared to venture into street traffic, his grand-father told him to imagine that he’s invisible, that pedestrians and drivers are blind to his presence.
Now that experience brought him to an analogy with the interactions between people, how their words and feelings affect us or let us cold. We are used to say that we care about the others, that we sincerely love them, but after we deliver this message, we move on. We think words are enough and our job is done as long as our intentions are good. But to quote Maraboli, let’s pretend those around us are deaf to our words. Let our actions speak and communicate our feelings and intentions.
Let’s imagine that we earn points and we grow stronger and wise as far as we generate a change. And it’s obvious that actions have a bigger impact than words. Sometimes people are truly deaf to what we say either because we are bad communicators or they have a poor imagination. Most of the time your speech inspires others, but our actions serve as example and show that a certain thing is possible. And we all need certitudes!
We all experienced situations when being in need and asking for help to a friend or a passenger-by, we got a long list of advises or technical guidance, but nothing more. Words and good intentions vaporize soon and our situation doesn’t change. So? People are grateful for having a good opinion or caring about them, but words are only words. Let’s pretend those around us are deaf and the only way to communicate and show them what we feel for them is through actions, good altruistic actions.
– Faith without works is dead (Jesus)
– Stop planing, take action (managers)
– Actions speak louder than words (common sense)
– An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox (Lao Tzu)
– You must be the change you want to see in the world. (Mahatma Gandhi)
– It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs (Vaclav Havel)