I did something weird Wednesday morning. I imagine a lot of us did.
My particular brand of weird was waking up, reading a few things, then deleting Facebook from my phone. Then, I made myself another cup of coffee and deleted Twitter, too.
It hurt too much. It was alternately making me sad and angry. I hated seeing some friends in so much pain. I hated seeing some friends feel so helpless. I hated seeing some friends gloat like ugly goats.
Wait… do ugly goats gloat?
Oh, there were good things, too… thoughtful things… humble things… kind things… but there was too much noise reverberating in the echo chamber of social media that I had to stop the buzzing in my head.
So, that’s what I did… stopped. I stopped doing what hurt.
I unplugged.
You can, too.
What did I do then? I helped my wife get the kids to school, I watered some plants, and then I drove seven hours to a convention to speak to some marvelous school teachers about leadership and how we’re far more alike than we are different.
Today, I’m going to give them 13 ways to be humbler, kinder, thougtfuller leaders.
We need them to be their best.
We need you, too.
Change doesn’t start in the White House.
Change starts in your mirror.
My friend Staci Bowlen once taught me, “You cannot expect someone else to change his behavior until you’re first willing to change your own.”
So, I changed mine, and I’m going to go try and help some others to do the same.
You can, too.
You get to choose how things affect you.
In the meantime, I won’t be seeing you for a little while on Facebook or Twitter. I’m keeping Instagram because I like seeing pictures of my friends’ kids. They grow up so fast, don’t they? I know mine are. I’m trying to be a good example for them by working hard and helping people and doing my dadgum-level-best to be kind.
Most folks are like that, I think. Like I said, we’re more alike than we are different.
In the meantime, I hope you’re doing okay. If you’d like to feel a little better, listen to the words of this song. It’s by my absolute favorite songwriter (sorry, John Prine and Jason Isbell) named Lori McKenna. It just won the CMA Award for song of the year.
It’s a simple song about little things that make a big difference. Every time I listen to it, it makes me feel a little bit better.
https://youtu.be/Fx2s-k4Q4Gw
I hope you feel a little bit better. Now, turn around and help the next one in line.
Unsure what to do? My friend Anni Poppen shared a website with me called randomactsofkindness.org. Start there. Let me know if it doesn’t help you just a little bit, too.
Oh, and PS – If you can’t tell from reading this who I voted for in the election, excellent! That’s what I was shooting for.