I was listening to comedian Jerrod Carmichael on The Tim Ferriss Show this week. He grew up in North Carolina and was selling shoes when he decided he wanted to become a comedian. So, he moved to LA to try it out there. He wanted to compete against the best. He wanted to jump into the deep end and see if he could swim.
Sounds scary. But he ended up with a show on NBC, an HBO special and a strong career.
Because he took a chance on himself doing something he had always been interested in.
He mentioned an exercise he does to inspire connections with others and spark new ideas.
He said, “I pretend I’m at the bottom of a well, and every face that I see, I imagine them being the face that peers over the side and has the ability to help me and rescue me from something. Everyone looks, first of all, amazing.”
So he sees everyone as the perfect person to enter the room at the moment. Someone who can help him. And when he does this, he sees the good shining through. Treasures are buried inside each person and experience, waiting to be found. This seems like a great way to go through life. Looking at each person we meet as someone who can assist us on our journey. How powerful.
What treasures might we find in the journey we are currently on?
As 2020 comes to a close, everyone has a story. People are mourning loved ones. People are grieving the lives they had and the ones they were expecting. Small business owners are suffering and are trying to find solutions that may help them hang on a little longer. Teachers and students are scrambling to educate and learn through screens and connect while masked and six feet apart. Frontline workers are soldiering on while countless companies have entire teams working from home making workplace cohesion more challenging than ever.
We are all at the bottom of our own wells looking up. Hoping for a friendly face with an outstretched hand to let us know it will be okay. The virus will disappear. The vaccines will appear. The day will arrive when a movie, a church service, a concert, a vacation, a theatre show, or a dinner out will be just another thing on the schedule.
Pandemics have been here long before us and will be here long after.
Our job is to take in this moment, see what we are learning, acknowledge our resiliency, and let go of what could have been.
There are people we meet every day who are like that face peering into the well to help us out. They can support us if we admit our needs. We also must remember that sometimes that outstretched hand is our own. Either helping a friend or a stranger or being there for ourselves. Reminding us that we are never really alone and have all we need to keep moving forward.
As we say goodbye to the most challenging year many of us have ever faced, may we always remember that tomorrow is another day. Full of hope, inspiration, dreams, and sunrises. Here’s to blank pages and wonderful stories to be written and shared.