I want to tell you about a journey I encountered. It was a weekend that transformed my life. This type of journey involves emotions, deep learning and getting a better overall perspective on life. On this weekend all of those feelings were all present.

It was more than 15 years ago. The retreat was 2 day weekend for men. It was about exploring all of our relationships such as your spouse, mother, father, siblings, money just to name a few. The church I attend had organized the event.

When the event starts you are in a room with 20 or so strangers. By the end of the first evening we had all began to establish trust with each other.  We would get to very personal stories, the raw emotions the next day. I am not going to tell you all the personal stories. What I will share is how much we all had similar beliefs of failure or not measuring up. I was truly amazed when and individual would share their story one person would join along side the individual because they had the same feelings, and then another and another. They all shared the same feelings. It was awesome to witness. They were not the only ones.

We were all playing on a level field, although when the weekend started we did not understand that. As we all shared and spoke of the areas of our lives we struggled we found we shared similar beliefs about our problems or issues that were holding so many of us back. We all had a story, but we were not the only one.

This journey opened my eyes to the fact you never know what the guy next to you is going through. We have no way of knowing the stress or other life events someone is struggling with and how easy it is to acknowledge those around you.

If today is a good day for you go out of your way to encourage a family member, friend, co-worker or a complete stranger. You don’t have to fix their problems, just let them know you see them. It may be the best part of that persons day and it cost you nothing. What you put out comes back!

Thanks for spending a few minutes with me today.

Oh, and have a great day.