New Years’ resolutions and the making of plans and creation of visions for the future abound at New Year. Little wonder they do. We know few of them stick beyond a few days or a few weeks. Part of the reason is they’re often what I can achieve for me.
They can fail for what they don’t do for others.
A different plan for a more fulfilling life that has more chance of sustained success is that of sowing something of ourselves into the vein of life that makes tangible differences in others’ lives.
We often talk of kindness as a virtue that is admired without thinking it’s personally attainable in daily life every day of our lives. Kindness is simply true empathy, for empathy meets the other person where they’re at, and they experience kindness when we empathise with them.
The way we think of kindness is it either happens to us or we end up being kind without planning to do so or we see it in the Press or on social media. What if kindness was more intentional—like, we sought out daily opportunities to be kind—and what if that kindness took the practical shape of empathy?
The concept is beyond the trite kindness of precocious ‘gifts’ of taking selfies giving a homeless person a brand-new pair of shoes and posting it on social media for ‘likes’. I mean, that kindness costs little and ends up benefitting us more than kindness should.
The concept is both a surer kindness that actually makes a difference in small though tangible ways in people’s lives—given that all people need to experience the kindness of empathy at some point or other—and it’s not a fake kindness that is more about our ego than it’s truly about the other person.
When we resolve to practice empathy, we show kindness in a very real way, and those opportunities surface a dozen or more times every day.
It’s clear that empathy is a gift to the other person but considering or valuing others more highly than ourselves also benefits us.
As we take care of others’ needs, we find that God’s already there taking care of our own needs. As we immerse ourselves in the trials and struggles of others, we are given more to reflect on related to gratitude. As we pour out the kindness of empathy over others’ lives, we find we’re given more that sustains us and that provides for others.
None of this is to say we don’t need vast amounts of empathy for what we’re dealing with. The truth is when we bestow empathy—not always, but at least occasionally—that empathy comes back to us, sometimes directly, but many times indirectly as we see God’s blessing in the choices we’ve made to live a life of empathic kindness.
There’s something we’ve yet to experience if we haven’t yet tried this. When we resolve to be kind in our practicing empathy, something in us grows into accord with the divine. We become larger and lovelier persons, and in so many ways we become who we’ve always wanted to be.
Not only this, but this drive for kindness in being an empathiser is very much more sustainable, because our vision for change has expanded beyond just us.
Encapsulating every sphere of life, this goal is practiced continually and is quickly more of a habit we’re proud of exemplifying.
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