Saturday, February 1, 2014

Countdown to 30: 30 days, 30 Lessons (Day 12 - You Never Know Who Will Be Important To You)

I touched on this on Day 1 (Speak Up) but it bears reiterating - you never know who will be important to you. One of my favorite lines in August: Osage County is "Thank God we can't tell the future, we would never get out of bed." And I'm not entirely sure that's true. I think if we could know the future, we wouldn't believe it anyway. 


The tragedy is not the number of people who betray you, it's the number of people you didn't give the chance to support you.


We often assume we know who our friends will be. We dismiss people who don't fit a particular idea of what we want. We don't ask for help because we assume people can't help. We don't confide in people because we assume they don't understand. 


If we knew what everyone else knew, all of our problems would be solved already.


Opening up makes you vulnerable, true, but more often than not it allows you to get your needs met. I currently live with (and love) people whom I wasn't even aware of four months ago. One of my best friends is my former intern; another I met on my very first day of college. I have people helping me run my business who I've never met in person. I couldn't predict what they would do for me, and I've stopped trying. It has also encouraged me to be more generous, even when someone doesnt' expect it. 


People's capacity for generosity exceeds our expectations. We can't predict who will help us, or how, so be open to all of the possibilities.


Courtney


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