A Little Sunshine Goes a Long Way

Each day, my schedule is built around driving my kids to school in the morning and then picking them up again in the afternoon. It's a pretty basic task, and like most of the things we all do each day, it is not accompanied by much fanfare or other occurrences that are particularly memorable. But as is the case with virtually everything in life, there are almost always exceptions to the rule.

In the case of my two-a-day trips to my kids' elementary school, the exception to the rule is a lovely, friendly, cheerful, positive, and up-beat person named Pamela.

Pamela is a crossing guard. She does not make a lot of money; she does not have a powerful position or fancy title; she is not highly educated; she is never in the spotlight; and that is exactly the way she likes it!

In fact, truth be known, Pamela is not even her real name, and that is at her own request. She respectfully declined my invitation to interview her for this article. I had hopes of doing so in order to publish an official profile piece complete with her real name and some photos of her at work each day. But Pamela demurred, preferring to maintain "a low profile."

As a journalist, I was, at first, disappointed by her declination. In my view, it would have made the story a lot better to have her real name along with some pictures (always worth a thousand words) of Pamela in action. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how perfect it is that Pamela preferred to go unnamed and un-photographed for this article. Her desires in the matter prove that she does what she does NOT for attention, fame, or glory; but because it simply makes her—and others—happy. And that makes the SAL lesson inherent in her example even more powerful.    

So what exactly is it that Pamela does everyday that has had such a powerful impact and influence on me and so many others in the community? You'll hardly believe me when I tell you what she does.

She SMILES.

Yep.  She smiles.  And she doesn't just smile a little bit; she smiles BIG. I'm talking she puts the "mile" back into "Smile" in a way that few people on the planet can compete with. And as she smiles, she enthusiastically waves to each car as it passes by. And as she smiles and waves, her entire countenance lights up with a genuine and authentic joy and mirth that bursts forth as a ray of positive emanating light that is truly contagious. Consequently, nearly every person that passes her smiles big and waves enthusiastically back at her. 

The result of this infections cheerfulness and positivity is that nearly everyone who passes by Pamela has grown to absolutely LOVE her; and Pamela absolutely adores everyone who passes by her each morning and afternoon. It is a truly remarkable phenomenon that all self-action leaders can learn from.

And what is the lesson?

There are many, but perhaps the most fundamental and seminal one is that a single individual can have a great influence on other people—and they can do it without titles, positions, money, fame, formal education, pressure, leverage, or anything of an external nature. 

That is a lot of power and influence. And yet, it is the kind of power that every one of us can potentially wield—no matter who we are, or who we aren't.  

When I stopped to talk to Pamela and ask her if I could interview her for this article, she had nothing but positive things to say about her life and the world. She said things like, "You know, there's so much good in the world; we need to choose to avoid negativity and look for the good," and "It brings me so much joy to see everyone's happy faces everyday" and "there's so many reasons to be happy!" She also cited a sibling of hers who faces serious health problems, and spoke of how grateful she is to just be able to get outside and work everyday—something her sibling is unable to do.  

What an example!

Pamela will probably never be a high profile or highly influential person in our society and world, partly because she doesn't want to be, and partly because the world will never choose to give an obscure elementary school crossing guard that kind of attention.

But I am astonished at how highly influential Pamela has been on those with whom she comes into contact each day, and fascinated at how relatively few people ever figure out the secret that Pamela comprehends—that each of us possesses the potential power to powerfully influence those around us in incredibly meaningful and positive ways—every single day!

Unfortunately, the reason that Pamela's simple smile sticks out so saliently is because our society is full of people who choose to frown, fret, sneer, snub, smear, slander, scream, insult, and injure when they could choose to smile, wave, laugh, love, forgive, forget, let-go, and give others the benefit of the doubt.

But Pamela—and those relatively few folks like her—renew my hope that all is not lost. Indeed, all it really takes to start making the world a better place is to smile and wave, and then do it again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and never stop doing it—and then watch as our actions begin to, one-by-one, positively influence others around us.

Pamela is an inspiration to me—and everyone else who knows her. She's not a celebrity; she's not rich; she's not famous; she may not even be unusually gifted or talented. But she is good; she is kind; she is cheerful; and she understands the power of her own self-action leadership influence on others—and she righteously exercises that power and influence to the perpetual good of her community; and that makes Pamela powerful. And the amazing thing is that all of us can choose to follow her example in our own unique way every single day. Smiling big and waving may not specifically be your thing. But I know you are clever enough to discover something that is.

What are you waiting for?            

-Dr. JJ

June 16, 2021

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 216th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013. 

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 215 FF Blog Articles.  

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