Some readers will know what I do for a living, aside from writing this blog, but most won’t. What I will say, though, is that I am a senior manager with a fantastic group of staff, and have a rewarding career. There are hundreds of things I do in a week, and dozens of key responsibilities, but one that brings me a consistent feeling of accomplishment is the one that pays me nothing and won’t be found anywhere on my job description. I also make sure I perform this task outside of work, although my spouse might question if it’s done to the same level of care at home. Hear me out – I clean bathrooms.

It’s okay to…try again another day

If you’ve followed this blog for a while you will know that I try to find positivity and opportunity in everything…it’s the reason this blog exists. It’s not always easy, and we are all guilty of having bad days. This is okay. It’s also okay to wake up, realize you’re going to have a really bad day, and decide to go back to bed, only to try again tomorrow. I’ve seen an internet meme/video that states this, and at first I laughed, but then realized that, while we can try to find positivity and opportunity in all life throws at us, we can’t force it. Sometimes we have to go back to bed and try again another day, and it might be better for everyone around us if we do.

Opportunities to be positive and earn good karma can seem few and far between at times, but I’ve noticed that you can create your own positivity in the strangest of places – if we try hard enough, and if we push ourselves to create positive habits.

Water spots on the mirror, I clean them too

So, do I really clean bathrooms? Not entirely, but like most of us, I use the washroom where I work, and I also use the kitchen and various other spaces throughout my day. What I can say I do, however, is leave each of those spaces in better condition than when I entered them, not because I have to, but because I believe in Karma and want to leave a positive impact. For example, when I wash my hands I wipe the water from the sink and faucet, often leaving the faucet looking as shiny as a show car. If I notice water spots on the mirror, I clean them too. If I see dust on the top of the paper towel dispenser or the hand dryer I wipe those too. We have cleaners who do a fantastic job, and I’m sure they clean these areas too, but on some microscopic level I truly believe that I have contributed positively to my day and that of others by leaving the room better than when I entered it. This applies to public washrooms too. Could you imagine if, every time we entered a room we made a slight mess but then left it for the next person? Now, imagine if this happened dozens of time per day. We’d be left with a pretty messy place by the end of the day.

Get ourselves to a place where we leave someone better than when we first interacted with them

Am I saying we should all be doing more cleaning while we navigate from place to place? It wouldn’t hurt, and we would all reap the benefits of a cleaner world, but I bring this up as an example of how we can all improve our lives, and the lives of others on a microscopic level each day. Picture each interaction you have with someone as the washroom that I mentioned above. Now imagine if everyone else that interacted with that person left them “messier” than they were before? That person would be in tatters by the end of the day. Flip things around, and try to picture leaving a positive interaction with that person, and multiply that by all the other interactions they have that day. Hopefully they’re left in a much more “tidy” place, and while your sole interaction with them will not have accomplished this alone, there is hope that we can all get ourselves to a place where we leave someone better than when we first interacted with them.

Does this apply to all interactions and all types of discussions? Likely not, but we can still try our best to steer our interaction in a positive direction if we are focussed on doing so. There are times when I have to deliver bad news, or times when I’ve been noticeably frustrated, and it’s these types of interactions where we have to redouble our commitment to positivity. Is it okay to be angry or frustrated at times? Absolutely, but only if your intention is to help others understand your passion, and to remind them that you’re human. If the intention of your anger and frustration is to convey fear or guilt in the other person, I would suggest that you have left the interaction in a far worse state – the washroom messier, if you will.

Think about the consequences of doing or saying something before you do it

The piece of advice I’ve given most often is this – think about the consequences of doing or saying something before you do it, while also thinking about the consequences of not doing or not saying something. This only takes a second or two, and the person on the receiving end won’t even notice, but I can assure you that you will begin to recognize several times each day where you may have corrected your course and shifted to a more positive, less harmful direction. We have to be okay with not being perfect, and will fail at this often, but if we commit to leaving each interaction a little tidier, even on a microscopic level, our days will be more positive and our impact on others will be felt.

So, let’s start cleaning, and rest assured, the cleaners will still have jobs to do….but they will be doing them in a much nicer place.