How Full Is Your Bucket?

How Full Is Your Bucket?
Thoughts For A New Year

 

Have you ever thought about how our lives are shaped by our interaction with other people? Whether we have a long conversation with a friend or simply place an order at a restaurant, every interaction makes a difference.  Have you ever asked yourself at the end of the day, "Have I made someone happy today or have I done something to make someone sad?" Have you ever considered  how even the briefest interactions affect your relationships, productivity, health, and longevity?

I recommend reading "How Full Is Your Bucket" by Tom Rath and Donald D. Clifton, an easy reading book chock full of wisdom, inspiration and practical advice. I'm not really into "self-help" books but the premise of this book has stayed with me since I read it years ago. It is  based on the simple thought that everyone has an invisible bucket that holds their feelings.  Here is a brief description of the Bucket-Dipper Theory:

“Each of us has an invisible bucket.

 It is constantly emptied or filled, depending on what others say or do to us. 

When our bucket is full, we feel great. 

When it’s empty, we feel awful.

“Each of us also has an invisible dipper.

When we use that dipper to fill other people’s buckets- by saying or doing thing to increase their positive emotions- we also fill our own bucket.

But when we use that dipper to dip from others’ buckets- by saying or doing things that decrease their positive emotions- we diminish ourselves.

“Like the cup that runneth over, a full bucket gives us a positive outlook and renewed energy. 

Every drop in that bucket makes us stronger and more optimistic.

“But an empty bucket poisons our outlook, saps our energy, and undermines our will. 

That’s why every time someone dips from our bucket, it hurts us.

“So we face a choice every moment of every day: 

We can fill one another's buckets, or we can dip from them. 

It’s an important choice- 

one that profoundly influences our relationships, productivity, health, and happiness.”

From “How Full is Your Bucket?” by Tom Rath and Donald Clifton.

The story of our lives is the interplay of the bucket and the dipper. Everyone has both. The secret of the bucket and the dipper is that when you fill another's bucket it does not take anything out of your own bucket. The level in our own bucket gets higher when we fill another's, and, on the other hand, when we dip into another's bucket we do not fill our own ... we lose from our own. Today, Let's resolve not to put your dipper in someone elses bucket. Put aside your dipper and resolve this new year to touch someone's life in order to fill their bucket!