2024 November 12 Be a positive influence

Hi, I'm Jim Cranston from 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com, the podcast and website by, for, and about reimagining your life. Thanks for joining me tonight. We're going to be talking a little bit about life and attitude in general. We've talked about that in the past few weeks. We've talked about some specifics related to things leading up to the U.S. election. We're not going to talk about that anymore. We've covered that as much as it needs to be covered.

I came across two people as I was traveling today. I met them out of the blue. I tend to meet people and talk to them as I go around, which is a fun thing to do. You meet a lot of interesting people that way.

I met these two people at different places in my journey. The first was a young woman. She was returning from a trip to the Dominican Republic. Oh great, another rich kid going out and taking a fun vacation that I can't afford. Actually, if you thought that, you'd be 100% wrong.

She's working for herself. She's actually a plumber, and loves to meet people. She has an open attitude when she meets people, so you really feel like you've known her for a while. She does good plumbing work, so she does plumbing, meets people, they become friends, and opportunities arise out of that.

That's how the Dominican trip happened. It was through someone she had met through work. When she went down there, she didn't just hang out on the beaches. This wasn't a beach trip. She was telling me that, when she travels—and she's traveled a few different places now—her whole point of the travels is actually to meet people and have discussions with them about what's going on in their lives, in her life, and how things are the same and different, and to learn from each other and really  spread knowledge around the world.

She's been doing this for a couple of years. She's planning a podcast. It's called So Glad to Meet You. We were talking about that and I said that she has a big opportunity to make a really positive impact on people in a lot of different ways.

Travel isn't just going out and spreading your money around somewhere to prove how rich and privileged you are. It can also be a mechanism to meet people, change their lives, change your life, and to have a positive benefit on both sides of the equation. Another aspect of it was that here she's fairly young already working in an atypical career path.

Doing something that could inspire people not only to work in a typical career path, but also go ahead and realize that doesn't mean that you're going to be stuck doing menial jobs your whole life—that if you're passionate about it, you can be passionate about any skill that leads you to other things.

We've talked before about looking for opportunity. When you look for opportunity, it tends to present itself because opportunity is around us at all times. She's talking about how she's  hesitant to start. It turns out her cousin wanted to be in on it with her. Now she has an accountability partner and no reason to put it off! I gave her a card and told her if she needs introductions to anybody, I'd help. She should go ahead and absolutely start it because one of the worst things that can happen is that you find yourself 70 years old still saying, I should do that one of these days. It's very minimal risk and tremendous upside. You can change the world in a positive way.

Everyone has opportunities all around them. This woman mentioned her podcast without any prompting whatsoever. That's one of the things we talk about a lot here—that everyone can make a change even if it's a little teeny change. They can make a change, and by that, make a change in the world.

So she went to the Dominican Republic for a week, and met three or four people. She planted the seeds in people's heads on how to live. This is how women are treated over here. Here's how your culture respects women. I didn't realize it was that way. There's a lot of things that can happen. Even the smallest things can lead to really large opportunities for big positive change and big personal growth. So that was really interesting. 

Then I was chatting with the guy next to me on the plane for a few minutes. He didn't say he didn't want to talk, but it seemed like he had other things to do. Then his buddy showed up and sat down on the other side of me, and we started talking. It turns out he was pretty interesting because he worked in finance. Immediately, I think about New York city finance. 

So you're thinking, Money grubber, doesn't care about anything. Not at all the case, actually. He was very interested in finding where he could make a positive change and where that attitude can be used to spread it around so that it affected other people, not only in your circle, but by starting something in your circle that could affect people in a positive way outside that circle. We had a wonderful conversation because he was in finance and investment, and he had a great handle on not only future financing options and planning, but also retirement. We got to talking about the whole point of 7EveryMinute is seven Baby Boomers retiring every minute. That's an awful lot.

There's a wave of people suddenly concerned about retirement. But it went beyond that. Then he started talking about how it allows him to give back a little and help other people. It's not just working and putting together the right portfolio or helping people with their financial planning. By doing that, you're helping them live a better retirement life. You don't have to be a money grubber. You can do things ethically and you can make a change in people's lives. That turns it into a real win-win situation and allows him to give back while he's working for himself. 

He's an interesting guy because he came from a really large family. He said he's from a large family, and he's in the middle of it. He's the oldest boy in the family, but he said he also had some autistic siblings. This is where the whole giving back came from. He was always involved in their care and helping with them, setting up structures and processes around that so that other people could care for them better.

Eventually a group formed in the area and now there's a lot better care overall. Maybe it wasn't a direct offshoot of what he did—maybe it was, but even if it wasn't—by giving that model, other people could see there's a better way to do this than the way you've been doing it.

The way this guy is doing it, we could do that, too. If we all did it together, we'd probably come up with a better way to do it. So again, here's somebody doing something that you would think, Oh, you're caring for your brothers and sisters. How life changing can that be? Well, it turns out it can be very life changing if you really do it with the right perspective and the right expectation. 

So now, thinking back to the past couple of weeks and what we've been talking about, there was a lot of energy arguing and blaming others, and moaning and wailing, saying, I can't believe people are acting this way. 

It was a lot of energy. People were spending the better parts of their days on this whole thing. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not talking about the election per se. I'm talking about people just complaining about other people. That's the energy I'm talking about. 

Imagine instead that all that energy had been spent instead on trying to really solve differences. Maybe something would have happened to really move people together and move us forward with some sense of unity in a common direction. I know it's a lot to ask for. I saw a lot of people saying a lot of things that they could have said differently, and if they had said differently, might have led to having a discussion rather than an argument.

Two people might have learned about each other and why they were passionate about their viewpoint instead of pushing each other away, and in some cases, probably damaging friendships. We always make that decision. We have the ability to make a decision one way or the other in any particular situation.

Just meeting these two people reminded me that opportunity and inspiration are everywhere. I met the woman on the shuttle bus between two terminals. I got to talking and realized that was interesting. I got a little bit more information about her and then saw her on the same flight. I talked to her in the waiting area for the flight. 

There was no huge amount of energy expended by either one of us. The only thing that took was a little bit of risk on both our parts to talk to somebody new, and a little bit of willingness to put ourselves  at risk to try and understand the other person. Neither one is a huge thing. We had little to lose. 

But it did work out. Now we both have a different perspective. We both have things that have changed our lives. Talking to these people reminded me that true inspiration is absolutely everywhere if you're open to it. I could have sat in the bus and not talked to her. She could have gotten on the bus and just put her head down and talked to nobody. She was actually talking not just to me, but three other people, and everybody was laughing. It was all a good time. She was a very good person. She likes that she's a super positive energy person.

Opportunities are everywhere—maybe big opportunities and maybe little opportunities—but you can't take advantage of them if you don't take small risks and try to move forward. 

We all have the ability to go one way or another. In the political discussion, people more often than not elected for the anger route. They could have just as easily elected the unity route and really talked things out. When you meet people anywhere, you just do pleasantries.

Hi. Good morning. How are you? Go half a step further. Hey, how are you doing? I like that bag you're carrying. That's really nice. It's probably nice to travel with. Open a conversation. I tend to push—not badly, but push a little bit. Hi. That's really interesting. Tell me more about that. What's your passion? When you do something like that, it gives somebody else the opportunity to share their passion. When that happens, that's when the magic has the opportunity to happen because you can both learn about each other, and learn a lot more about the world, and maybe bring both of you forward to a place better than you had expected. That's really it. The choice is always ours to make which direction we want to go. 

Thank you so much for joining me. As always, remember all the wars that are going on in the world. Also the divisiveness. A lot of people have decided they don't want to work with each other but rather fight with each other. Not only in Ukraine, whom we actually support, but also with all the natural disasters that happen. Support the Ukraine - you can find donation sites at UKR7.com for Ukraine. 

You can also support the World Central Kitchen, WCK.org. They are the ones you'll typically see after a natural disaster happens, feeding the people using the local feed sources. If you can and you're able, those are great places to donate. Locally, there are also a lot of charities always looking for some help. 

You can also make a huge change in someone's life by being friendly. Say good morning—it's that simple. It could ripple through and maybe make a hundred people's day better just by that one little action.

Remember we always say that one of the best ways to care for yourself is to care for others. It changes your attitude, brings it inside yourself to outside yourself, changes your whole perspective on the world. It's a much better perspective. 

Thanks for joining me tonight as always. Live the best life that you can. Live your life to the fullest by following your own dreams. Once you get that vision in your head, start working towards it. If it's a good vision, that really brings a positive aspect of the world. You'll find that a lot of good things go on in your life. Thanks again, as always from 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com. Live the best life that you're able, because it will bring you happiness.