I want the toy!

As a young kid cereal was a big deal! I almost looked forward to getting up and pouring that big bowl of cereal! I liked to eat 1 or 2 bowls and then drink the milk out of the bowl. Most of the cereal was full of sugar and was very sweet and tasty! Heck, I still like to have a bowl from time to time now!

Nowadays kids primarily pick cereal based on their favorite characters or how sweet the cereal is. That may have been true to some extent when I was a kid too but I usually picked my cereal based on the toy that could have been in the box. That was one of the main ways the cereal companies were able to attract kids to buy their cereals. It was very clever.... promise kids a toy in every box and they got the sugar as a bonus. Sure, not every box had the exact toy you wanted but trying to find the one you wanted kept you coming back to buy more until you found it! By the time you got all the toys it was time for the toys to change and you could start all over. A very well thought out plan and design by the cereal manufacturers I must say.

When we got new boxes of cereal I wanted to be the first to open it! Why? Because I wanted the toy out of the box. It seems a little weird now but back then I wanted the toy so I made sure I was the one to open the boxes. I would get up early and open the box and dig my hands down inside and feel around. After a few seconds I would pull out the small toy and unwrap it. I would then usually eat cereal while playing with the small toy.

What does this have to do with anything?

Well, after I thought about what I use to do it got me to thinking. How inconsiderate was that for me to do? Why? Because I would open the box and dig my dirty hands down in the cereal until I found the toy. I wasn’t taking other peoples feelings and what they thought into consideration before I did it. You think they would really want me digging my dirty hands down in that box? That is disgusting if you think about it! I also didn’t take anyone else into consideration because maybe they wanted an opportunity to get the toy for themselves. Maybe I got the last one last time but I wanted them all!

How does this apply to you?

Well, have you ever done something that was very inconsiderate and you did it anyway? I think we often make split decisions based on what we want and how we feel and it’s often inconsiderate to others. I often hear people say that they don’t care what people think about them and I don’t believe that to be totally true. When you think like that all the time then there is a good chance that you will reach your dirty hand into the cereal and dirty the whole box of oats for everyone else that’s planning on eating it too. It’s so much easier and more considerste to think about others first before making a decision. 

I’m not saying to try and please everyone because that isn’t possible. Only trying to be more servant minded instead of self serving. If people were more servant minded and would think of others first then I think it would be a much better place to live for everyone.

Who are your blinkers for?

Have you ever been driving down the road and someone cuts over in front of you really quickly or maybe makes a quick turn right in front of you without using their blinkers? How did it make you feel? Did it scare you or make you angry? Have you ever done it to someone else? I’m betting that if you’re a driver then you’ve done it at some point or another.

Who are your blinkers for? 

Have you ever thought about that? We drive our cars almost everyday and we probably haven’t really even thought about this question. If you really think about it then it is pretty obvious that the blinkers, in your car, aren’t for you. They aren’t for you! Then who are they for? They are for other people that’s outside your vehicle. They are for the people driving other cars. They are for pedestrians possibly riding a bike or walking down the sidewalk to let them know that you may indeed be changing lanes or maybe even turning. 

Though every car has blinkers it’s true that not everyone uses theirs. I mean they probably don’t use them all the time or at least I don’t. I probably use them 90% of the time but I’m definitely not 100%! If the blinkers are on every car and meant to alert other people then why don’t we use them all the time? Wouldn’t it possibly be safer if we used them like we should? Isn’t it probably more considerate of other people if we used them more often? So why wouldn’t we use them all the time? I’ve come up with 2 reasons why someone might not use their blinkers like they should.

1)  We aren’t always considerate of other people. Many times we don’t think about other people even though we may claim to. We often want to make ourselves believe that we are always thinking of others and always considerate but you probably don’t use your blinkers all the time either! I know that not using your blinkers is not the end of the world and doesn’t always mean we are inconsiderate all the time but just stay with me because I am going somewhere with this.

2) We are always in a hurry. We have busy lives and we always seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere or do something. We often are always running late to work, school or an engagement so we don’t have time to slow down much less use our blinkers. I know that we still use our blinkers sometimes when we get in a hurry but it’s probably very likely that we forget to use them as much as we usually do when we aren’t in a hurry.

Regardless if your aren’t considerate of other people or you are always in a hurry using your blinkers are important. We need to be able to let people know where we are going and what we are doing while we are driving. We sometimes probably take the fact that other drivers will know what we are going to do and maybe not use them but any of these could cause an accident and maybe even hurt someone.

Where am I going with this common sense stuff?

How does this fit into our lives and become a life lesson? 

Well, I’m glad you asked!

We walk through life sometimes and take things for granted. We walk by people without acknowledging them or speaking. Sometimes we don’t acknowledge people that may be having a bad day or don’t say “hi” or “how are you doing?”. We sometimes seem to look past people just so we won’t have to say something to them. Have you ever purposely ignored someone or acted like you didn’t see them just so you wouldn’t have to talk to them? I’m sure you have at some point!  

So why do we do this? What makes us act like this towards other people? And how does not using your blinkers become an example of how we treat people?

Simple! 

1) Just like we are inconsiderate for not using our blinkers sometimes we are also inconsiderate of other people we are around everyday. We come into contact with many people every day. We have people we work with, converse with or even see at the gas station or the grocery store and yet, with all those people we see, we go out of our way to ignore and dodge them. I’m not always the most cordial guy either so this applys to me as well. I also understand that not everyone will nod or speak back if you acknowledge them so I get the fact that it can get tiresome trying to be nice to people especially since some, if not most, will reject your friendliness. 

2) We are in such a big hurry in life that we seemingly don’t have time to acknowledge others. We are walking fast past people or maybe just have our head down so that we won’t have to acknowledge others. We always seem to be running too late to speak or say hi to someone. It’s almost like we are in a race and the only participant is us and we are the only one we are concerned about. 

Whether you are inconsiderate to others or even in a big hurry all the time it is important to understand one thing! You never know when something you say or an action you do to someone can effect their day or maybe even their life. You never know how awful of a day someone is having or what has happened in their life recently. So when you are ignoring, being inconsiderate or in too big of a hurry to notice people you may miss the chance to change their day or make a difference. I’m not saying that every time you speak to someone that they will all of a sudden change their outlook on life but it couldn’t hurt. Maybe you are the icing on the cake. Maybe they had been having a terrible time in their life and you just happen to be the final piece to the puzzle. 

My point to all this is to take time in your life and try and make a difference in someone’s life. It could be a simple “good morning” or maybe just asking how their day is going or if you can help them with something that can change their outlook. Maybe it’s just noticing the fact that they are struggling with something and listening. Somtimes just the mere offering of an ear can make a world of difference to someone’s life. Be courteous, be considerate, stop being in so big of a hurry and acknowledge others because we all live here together so why not at least try to make a difference. 

Though we aren’t going to be perfect at this it only takes 1 to make a difference in someone else’s life!