Lollipops and Raindrops

At a recent meeting for work we watched a TedTalk called, The Lollipop Moment.  I've been under a rock, and have never actually seen a TedTalk prior to this one, but I was grateful that this was my first.  The speaker, Drew Dudley, began the talk by asking how many people in the audience were comfortable calling themselves a leader?  Very few hands went up...and in my head I was trying to rack my brain for moments that I would say I was a leader.  I thought of a few instances from my youth, from previous jobs and my current career...but the keyword there is few.  I, as we all are, am my own worst critic and I often doubt myself and my strengths.  If I could consider a time I felt like I was a leader, I immediately start talking myself out of it, and how it wasn't really true leadership.  

 Well, Drew shared his story and truly redefined what being a leader is.  In his story he recalled of the time a girl came up to him, years after their encounter, and told him how he impacted her life and she needed him to know before he graduated college.  Drew had no recollection of the encounter that was so life changing for her but came to the realization that he had a lollipop moment.  A lollipop moment is defined by Drew as, "A moment where someone said something or did something that you feel fundamentally made your life better?"  He declared that this is how we need to view leadership...as lollipop moments.  There are so many lollipop moments in my life, and I'm sure you can stay the same.  The moments that stay with you, the person that you smiled at and made their day, or someone whose words left an impact. 

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 Later on in our meeting we were asked to write down something we were struggling with and crumpling it up.  Everyone in the group wrote something down with such ease, crumpled and threw.  Wow, a room full of 30+ people, a room filled with people who are so different in personality, appearance, and age, yet we all had at least 1 thing that we were struggling with. 

 Take a moment for that to sink in.  Humans are so incredibly different, yet at the end of the day we all have our struggles.  No one person's struggle is less important than anyone else.  Do not be so quick to judge when someone is asking for advice about their disrespectful neighbor when you are studying for an exam you need to pass in order to get a promotion.  What may seem as no big deal to you is a huge deal to someone else.  We are all so quick to judge, and selfishly assume our problems are more important, or so-and-so didn't try hard enough to fix their situation.  

 How about we drop the judgmental attitude and respect the fact that we all have our crap.  

 How about we be a little kinder to one another, and build one another up instead of tearing each other down. 

 How about we tell someone when they have impacted our lives for the better, instead of leaving things unsaid. 

 I challenge you to tell someone they impacted your life and your life is significantly better because of them.

 I challenge you to listen to someone who is struggling instead of rolling your eyes and being a gossip.
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