If nice guys finish last, then why is it so important for us to feel like we're nice? I mean, it seems like everyone wants to be perceived as a nice person, but very few of us go out of our way to do the things needed to be rewarded with the nice descriptor.
Dictionary.com's first definition describes nice as: pleasing; agreeable; delightful: a nice visit. Personally, I usually try to be pleasing with those I encounter, but I'm not always agreeable, and I'm certainly not always delightful. Come to think of it, I'm pretty much just 1/3 nice most of the time. And if you catch me in a bad mood, my ability to be pleasing goes out the window and I'm pretty much not nice at all.
Maybe that's why when I got into a recent discussion about who were the nicest men in my circle of friends, I didn't find myself at the top of many "lists". I guess it's to be expected, but that doesn't mean I feel any better about straddling that bottom rung of my friend's niceness lists.
Come to think of it, maybe I really am nice in the grand scheme of niceness, but I'm just surrounded by some really nice friends. Ya, that sounds about right.
I guess being nice is like anything else, you have to work at it to be really great. We have to learn to practice all three stages of niceness and eventually we'll work our way up those lists to the top positions. Well, just add niceness to the long list of things I aspire to be. If we didn't have hopes, dreams and aspirations, we'd have nothing.
When it comes to niceness, let's all agree to take it one day at a time. For today, let's forget about living life and prospering. And let's just try to be nice...:) You know, pleasing, agreeing and delighting. Something tells me it's gonna be a long day.
No comments:
Post a Comment