Even as a natural pessimist, one behavior I don't understand in people is this desire to see others brought down. Or, to be the ones bringing the other party down themselves.
What is it in our nature that drives us to such bitterness? Why must we scrabble and clamber over one another in reach of something we'll never grasp?
Today I witnessed a fine example of this. A coworker has decided that another of our colleagues is not living up to his standards, so he has decided to track every little failure she makes, gathering data into a chart that contrasts her perceived failures with his successes. Once he has enough data to work with he will show it to the next person higher up on our sad little totem pole. And for what? Some brief moment of pale superiority?
This sort of thing saddens me more than anything else. I would advocate for a method of encouragement and community rather than plotting someone else's downfall. Which leads me to ask...
...What are you doing in your everyday life that improves the lives of others around you?
...Are you always aware of the kind of effect your attitude has on those people?
...When was the last time you gave someone a compliment out of the blue?
...Wouldn't you rather totally make someone's day instead of being the one who utterly ruins it?
Just something to consider over the weekend. If you've got a story of a thing you did recently that made someone's day a little brighter, or helped them achieve any level of success, I'd love to hear it.
