How Full Is Your Bucket?

Today I got an email from a fan fiction writer telling me that a review I sent her had made her day. She was bored and down working the night shift and the review I sent her cheered her up. I don’t know Kate personally and at the moment, I didn’t realize how you can make someone’s day with so little.

Watching Ellen the other day, she told this story about a woman who wanted to help her BFF who had lost everything; from her job, to her car and was really struggling. Obviously Ellen helped them both, but the thing that caught my eye, was that this woman, had lost everything and still kept on smiling and helping others that were in the same or worst situation than her. Her friend even shared on the show, that every time they were in the car waiting for the lights to turn, she would turn and say hi and smile to the people in the car next to theirs. And her simple explanation was, “You know, maybe they are having a bad day”.

So, in the light of these two events, I had this moment where I stopped doing whatever routine thing I was doing and realized that I can pretty much make someone’s day with a simple action (as obvious as it sounds), like smiling, sending a review, even saying thank you and hi. Doesn’t matter if you know the other person or not, you are making someone’s day, or at least you are giving them hope, or a reason to smile, even if it is just for a second. By doing that, I can assure you that you are making your day too.

There is a theory that says that we all have a bucket and a ladle, we fill other people’s buckets when we act in a beneficiary way towards them, either by the things we say to them or the way we act around them. The great thing, is that when we fill other buckets, we fill ours too. The opposite happens when we empty the buckets with negative stuff, ours becomes empty too. There is a direct relation between what we do to others and what that do to ourselves. Sometimes we are so immersed in our own matters and routines that we take things for granted, things that can brighten someone’s day and in addition, ours too. We can smile more, say hi and thank you to the bus driver, and actually say it while looking him in the eye and not at our phones, wish good luck to our barista, stop for a minute and actually listen to the guy that is singing on the street, open the door for someone, lend a hand without expecting anything in return, and the list goes on and on.

So, I don’t know you, but from now on I`ll try to stop taking things for granted and start filling some buckets.

You can read more from Catalina Pinero Catellanos on her blog.

Feature image via.