Bumper Stickers or Buckets

“You can only be young once. But you can always be immature."
--Dave Barry,Author, humorist

I would love for this to be on my ass as my permanent bumper sticker, but that is probably not going to happen. There are just so many people I have encountered very recently that should just take a step back and realize the impact that their choices and behaviour have on others.

On my plane trip back to the Scotland from the US, I finished a book that my friend Melissa gave to me. It was called, How Full Is Your Bucket, by Roth and Clifton. It was a great little book that essentially sent the message that we are all buckets and ladles. With every interaction we can fill people’s buckets or take from them. It is the synthesis of many years of research boiled down into a simple idea. It is one that I believe I have tried to do, very often, and the “refresh” that the book gave me will inspire me to fill buckets in my personal interactions with people.

Taking steps to be more cognizant of the impact that words you use, body language and or not truly listening to others is important. I certainly do want to encourage collective passivism or liberal applications of apathy all future social interactions, but how we say what we want to say is 90% of the message, and the solution to just as much of the conflict that occurs on a daily basis. It surely beats the hell out of my ass bumper sticker idea.