Hey guys, Happy Thursday. I didn’t post this one this morning, because I was still kind of percolating it and wondering whether I actually should talk about it, whether I wanted to talk about it. What’s kind of pushed along, I guess, is this week someone I vaguely know, met her many, many, many years ago at a talent school, reconnected last year, unfortunately passed away yesterday, and just tragic, such an incredibly talented person, incredibly gifted, and the strength and the resilience, the most incredible things that she’s shown over the last couple of years. And in the last 24 hours, my Facebook feed has been … Kobe Bryant’s kind of gone down the feed, and my Facebook feed has been filled with people singing her praises, as they should be. She was phenomenal, and talking about her gifts and what she did and what she could do et cetera. And it really … It made me sad from the point of view of wondering, did she get all this stuff while she was here?
Why is it when … and I’m talking about anybody, my mother’s death, my father’s death, friends, family, anyone you know, even celebrities when they die, everybody comes out and we talk about the good things. Occasionally, we might talk about the bad things which have happened recently, but more often than not it’s about the incredible things that these people have, what they bring to us, what they give to us, the love we have for them, the way they make us feel when we walk into a room, the skills they had, what they could have done if they’d had extra time on this earth, et cetera. And I question, it’s really made me think, “Why don’t we say that stuff out loud in public more often when someone’s still here?” Why don’t we say, “My friend up the road who makes fabulous wooden chopping boards …”
Why am I not on Facebook talking about their fabulous wooden chopping boards? Why am I not writing a post about how my best friend said something to me yesterday that made me question things or made me feel loved or bought me back from the brink of thinking I was having a pretty fucked day? Why don’t we share the great experience that we had somewhere. Instead we shared the shitty one. I’ve been guilty of that recently, Telstra, but I wonder and it happens all the time. And I think we need to get braver. I think we need to … Before our friend gets sick, we need to be there praising their business, sharing what they do, inviting friends to like their stuff, or come to their show or read their book. Why are we too proud to say, “Hey guys, I know so-and-so.” What can I grab off my bookshelf quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly. Here we go.
Why can I not go, “Look, I know Kate Woog. She’s fabulous. You should all read her book. When I spend time with her, she makes me feel funny.” Correction. No one can actually make me feel anything. I do the feeling bit myself, but I feel funny around her. I feel loved. I feel like a great friend. Why can’t I share that? Why does something tragic have to happen for us to sing praises of people or to share what they do? I don’t get it. I’m finding it really frustrating as you can probably tell from this. And I’m guilty of it. Oh my God, I’m so guilty of it, so, so, so guilty of it. So I’m not doing a, “You should all follow me,” kind of thing, but I want to challenge you in the next 24 hours, the next year, I’m doing a 365 day challenge. Why don’t you do it?
For as many … pick a number, pick any number in the world and go, “For that number of days, every single day, I am going to publicly declare how freaking awesome someone is, how someone makes me feel, how a business does a really great service. I’m going to share how I feel about people and what they do before it’s too late.” I’m going to make people think, “Oh my God, my friend, Glen, amazing guitarist and singer, you guys should go see him more.” That’s what we need to share. Okay? Not the doom and the gloom. And it’s been a tough week in the media, I know, with everything that’s going on, but I really want to foster some kind of joy in this. And imagine, imagine what it will do to your friend who’s got a struggling cupcake business.
All they want to do is have this cupcake business. It’s been their dream for years. They’re so passionate about it. And tomorrow, you share a post about how awesome their cupcakes are and they get an extra sale. How will that make them feel? Not because you’re getting an affiliate commission or a backhander or an extra high five, anything of that, sharing it and telling people you love them, or you love what they do or other people should get to experience what they do, because you love what they do. Go for it. It’s not that scary, but we don’t do it. Okay. So please, that’s my encouragement, I guess, for the next 24 hours, spread the love people, spread the love. Night night.