Being Intentional with Your Message
“Intentional days create a life on purpose.” Adrienne Emms
Every email and every text message we send out with a signature is an opportunity to make someone smile. Recently, I purchased a backpack with LEDs in it where you can create personalized messages. And I got so excited because I could imagine wearing it and having people see a positive message as they walk down the street.
I waited for weeks for it to arrive. When it finally came, I put on two messages in bright rainbow colours. The first says: “You belong. Don’t forget that!” The second one is: “You deserve to be loved!” I got some comments on the backpack, but I got a welcome surprise about a week ago.
I was grocery shopping at Whole Foods and this woman who worked there came up to me out of nowhere. She scared me a bit, but I took out my noise-cancelling headphones as she clearly wanted to say something. “Hey, I’ve been following you through the store.”
I was not sure where she was going with this, so I cautiously replied; “Ok?….”
“I love the messages on your backpack. Thank you for sharing.” She was beaming and smiling. And her joy and thoughtfulness made me smile and feel incredible. Then she walked over to another employee who she was training. He was young and it was probably his first week on the job.
I kept shopping but I couldn’t find the popcorn. The young trainee was nearby so I asked him. Before I could even finish the word popcorn, he grabbed my hand and yanked me enthusiastically to the correct aisle. I smiled, thanked him and put my headphones back in as he walked away. But as I was reaching for the bag, I felt like someone was watching me. So I turned around and saw the trainee standing and smiling at me. Confused, I took off my headphones and asked “Hey, what’s going on?”
He looked a little embarrassed as he said; “I know she said she liked your bag, but I just wanted to tell you that I do too. Your bag is cool and I love your messages.”
Now I was embarrassed but I thanked him and hugged him. He was beaming as he walked away. Then before I could put my headphones back in, I heard a woman say “Hey!” This time it was another shopper and she said the same thing about following me through the store, liking the bag and thanking me for the messages. She said the messages made her smile.
This bag was drawing a lot of attention. I was thanking her when I noticed she was with her elderly father. He looked at me, smiled and said “I like those messages as well.”
In less than 10 minutes on a random Saturday, I made four beautiful connections. And I’m not telling you to go out and buy LED backpacks and put neon signs on your back. But it was a great reminder about the importance of intentionality.
Every conversation we have, every text message and every email we send is an opportunity to spread love and kindness and belonging. So this week, I’m trying to be more intentional with my messaging.
And maybe you’ll join me for that as well. And it could be as basic as if you have an email signature, putting a personal message there, because you never know when someone’s going to need to read that and smile.
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