I am fortunate to have a great relationship with my two children. Although they are well behaved and respectful when they should be, there is also a playful side to our relationship and we often banter back and forth. A few days ago, my daughter, son and I were having one of our good natured verbal sparring sessions. My son jokingly told his sister how lucky she was to have him to guide her in the ways of being a better person. She rolled her eyes, smiled and said, “Bro, I’m a better person after you leave the room.”
I immediately realized that there were two ways this sentence could be interpreted. It could mean that being around you has affected me in a profoundly positive way and I’m a better person for it. Or, it could mean that being around you brings me down so much that I’m better off the moment you leave.
So the question is, how would the people in your life interpret this line as it relates to you? I think we’d all agree that when we leave a room, we want the people we just left to feel that their lives were just a little bit better because we had been with them.
