Today, I walked into an office to sign in and get a visitor’s badge. The secretary there recognized me and asked how I liked my new job? I was preoccupied with the fact that I don’t have an ID badge, which they always ask me for. “I love it,” I replied distractedly while signing my name and taking a bright yellow Visitor’s sticker, on automatic pilot and hardly noticing her.
“I met you years ago, and I just want to tell you, you are the nicest person.”
I was paying attention now! Actually, I was stopped in my tracks. “Thank you,” I replied, about to leave.
She continued, “I remember you because you were just so nice. It was a couple of years ago, my son had his iPod taken and we came in to get it and …. well, you were just so nice to us. I just wanted to tell you that.”
I was nearly speechless, but recovered enough to thank her for sharing that with me.
I’m sharing it with you not to brag about how nice I am, but because the more I thought about it, the more I appreciated her ability to be so generous with compliments, so open and giving. That is a trait that not many people have. How often do you appreciate someone but never tell them? Or only tell them on a designated holiday with a greeting card?
It’s a totally different experience to share and receive a heartfelt compliment for no reason other than inspired generosity. And it makes it such a huge difference to hear it. I spent the rest of the day thinking about how one seemingly insignificant (to me) interaction years ago still had so much meaning for someone else, and how important it is to be mindful of how we treat each other every day.