Leave People a Little Better Than You Found Them

What’s a quote that perfectly describes your outlook on life?

There are plenty of beautiful quotes I could choose.

Some about courage. Some about chasing dreams. Some about learning to love yourself.

But if I had to choose one that comes closest to how I try to live, it would probably be this:

“People may forget what you said, but they’ll remember how you made them feel.”

I think there’s something wonderfully simple about that.

We spend so much of our lives worrying about getting things right.

Did I say the right thing?
Did I make the right impression?
Did I look okay?
Did I accomplish enough today?

And meanwhile, the things people often remember about us are much smaller.

Someone who listened when they needed to talk.

The person who noticed they were having a difficult day.

A compliment they weren’t expecting.

Someone who made them laugh when everything felt a little too serious.

Or simply the person who made room at the table and said, come sit with us.

I don’t think being kind means agreeing with everyone, and it certainly doesn’t mean allowing people to walk all over you. I’ve learned that lesson well enough.

But I do think we get hundreds of tiny opportunities every day to decide what kind of person we’re going to be.

Especially when there’s nothing in it for us.

You can scroll past someone’s little victory, or you can take ten seconds to tell them you’re proud of them.

You can assume you know somebody’s story, or you can listen.

You can always try to be the smartest person in the room…

Or you can occasionally shut up and let somebody else teach you something.

That last one has probably saved me more than once.

I’m not particularly interested in being remembered as perfect.

Perfect sounds exhausting.

I’d much rather be remembered as someone who encouraged people. Someone who laughed easily. Someone who occasionally said the wrong thing, probably drank too much coffee, learned as she went along and hopefully left a few people feeling a little better than she found them.

Because perhaps that’s enough.

We don’t have to change someone’s entire life every time we meet them.

Sometimes we just make five minutes of it a little nicer.

And if enough of us did that?

I think we’d be doing rather well.

Stay fabulous,
Luce 💋