Live Inspired Vlog 202: We Don't Have to Like Everyone

But We Should Certainly Strive to Respect Everyone

Well good morning, my friends! Welcome to Live Inspired with John O’Leary on this Wednesday morning.

This is probably going to be the last Wednesday morning you see a Christmas wreath behind my head. This is maybe one of the last Wednesdays you’re going to see me for a while recording outside, and also I wanted to begin this one as an aside.

I took a shower early this morning, got out, drying off, doing the normal preparation for the day. I look in the mirror- you know to make sure I shaved just right- then I look up at my hair and I look like the Denorex man. None of the shampoo that I had rubbed through my hair earlier in the showering process had come out, and I recognized, “How do you get out of the shower without getting ANY of the shampoo that had been inserted onto the top of your head off of the top of your head?”

How does this even happen?

So that’s where my morning began today, but that’s not where this Live Inspired little chat is going to go right now. No, I want to talk about an experience from yesterday and what it means for you today.

I am in Tampa, FL yesterday, speaking to a great organization down there, and getting ready to fly home. I'm going through the line at security and the gentleman in front of me in this TSA line looks over to me, maybe there are eight or so people in line in front of us, and says, “What idiots!”

What idiots!

He’s talking about the TSA officers because our line is eight people deep, and it’s going to take us about, I don’t know, three full minutes to get through this line. (We’re probably going to wait longer for the Starbucks on the backside.) But he’s referring to these folks as idiots, and it hits me- lots of things.

Number one is that these people, these men, these ladies, these leaders are serving that day in Tampa and in every airport around the country and they’re not getting paid for it. They’re doing this because they have the mission-play. They’re doing this because they feel a calling. They’re doing this because they feel- and I agree- that they’re keeping this nation safe.

I don’t believe it’s just chance that there have been no attacks through airlines since September 11, 2001. There’s a whole lot of pieces that play into that, but to completely disregard the role of TSA would be a mighty, massive mistake, my friends.

And here they are now, 15 years later +, serving us yesterday, serving us today, serving us tomorrow, and not getting paid for doing so.

For us to refer to them as idiots, I think it’s not a reflection of our TSA officers. It’s a reflection of those of us making that comment. And what I would suggest to all of us, whether we are airline travelers like I am, and I know many of you are today, or you’re in line behind a trash truck that’s moving a little bit slow, or a bus driver that’s in the fast lane going slow, or you’re at a line to get a coffee and the barista seems like she’s taking forever, FOREVER, just recognize that our judgments of others have very little to do actually with the other person that we are judging (without knowing them at all) and an awful lot more to do with how we feel about ourselves, how we feel about our situations, and about how we feel about our life going forward.

We don’t have to like everyone, that’s for sure.

But we certainly should strive to try to respect, to look up to, to encourage, and to love them.

I think in a community that is so divisive and so full of hostility and fear and finger-pointing, what a cool model that would be not only for our TSA officers, but for our children, for our students, and for those of us around us in the community.

My friends, if you want to take a deeper dive into this message and what it means not only throughout this week, but throughout the year beyond, we’ve got a very cool podcast, Your Best Year Yet, 2019 baby! It’s available on our Live Inspired podcast channel. There’s also a little link right below me. It is going to encourage and I believe equip you to step into your Best Year Yet.

I’m going to leave you with this, maybe words you can speak to the TSA officer as you’re going through, the barista as you’re going through, as you're kissing, your spouse, your partner or your kids goodbye:

I love you, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

It’s a very cool way to go through any line in life. It’s a very cool way to remind those that we encounter that they are blessed, that they are gifts, that they are sacred, and the best of their lives remain in front of them, as well.

For this time and until next time, this is John O’Leary, my friends.

And today is your day.

Be grateful for it.

Live Inspired.

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