A smile is the shortest distance between two people.
— Victor Borge —

On August 8th, I received an email. Actually, I received many emails, but one stood out from the rest. One that wasn’t mundane, or administrative. One that proves our actions have lasting ripple effects, though we may not be aware they even existed.

You’ve seen a peaceful, circular ripple in the water caused by one little drop. We glance only long enough to take it in and let it go. If we stood there and watched longer, would it eventually make its way to shore? Does it ever stop? If so, what stops it?

You’ve heard it a million times: Don’t sweat the small stuff. That’s very easy to say, but sometimes, the small stuff feels like big stuff. The key is to try to keep things in perspective.  A traffic jam is small stuff. A traffic jam when you need to badly go tinkle and are at a stand still with no exit in sight is a bit more dire. A traffic jam when it snows, and you’re stuck in your car on the freeway for more than 24 hours and your children are at daycare and you are a single mom with no relatives in town (Hello, Atlanta!) is no longer small stuff—enter some well-deserved sweat. See how perspective changes everything?

At a concert recently in upstate New York, I not only enjoyed the music, I also was fully intrigued by watching people. As the main act—meaning the best band—started winding down their playlist, droves of people began to leave. This is when it dawned on me what people are willing to miss out on over small stuff. They were leaving in order to avoid traffic getting out of the parking lot. But here’s what they missed: The absolute best song of the night! It’s ALWAYS the encore. Haven’t they ever heard “save the best for last?” It’s the reason everyone goes to the concert. And. They. Just. Left.

This nudged my brain to think about other things we miss out on because we are sweating the small stuff.

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
— Mark Twain—

I was driving through a busy, tourist-filled parking lot when it happened. A man pulled out right in front of me. I quickly slammed the brakes to avoid a collision, but still ended up so close, I could clearly make out his facial expression. I saw him mouthing something and immediately thought, “What a jerk.” As he pulled around me, he rolled down his window and stopped. “I am so sorry,” he said, sincerely. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it,” I responded and smiled.

Wow! That was unexpected. What a nice exchange of communication. Two very civil people: One taking complete responsibility for his mistake and apologizing; the other holding no grudge or malice and offering immediate, non-judgmental forgiveness.

She was the type of girl
the moon chased and
the stars wished for.
— K.K. Lall —

The theme of this month’s magazine is #LiveOutLoud. It’s a euphemism for: Be a badass. When I think of the stereotypical image of a female badass, I think of singers Pink and Madonna, Venus and Serena Williams, Wonder Woman, or some helmet-covered, platinum blonde barreling down I-95 on her own damn Harley—not on the back of his. The truth is all of these women’s lives scream badassery—they definitely live out loud!

Micromanaging never works. It’s demoralizing. It oppresses the talented and shuts down the oppressed. Rarely does it inspire new solutions, encourage open mindedness, or stimulate positive collaboration. More often than not, experience has shown that when people are micromanaged, an insurmountable amount of alienation, pushback, and non-productivity is created. Basically, micromanaging breeds negativity, which is highly contagious.