Each of us has been fortunate enough to have had someone in our lives have a positive affect on us. Some of us remember a teacher that made a difference at a critical time. Some had parents, grandparents or other relatives to lean on. For others, it may have been a rabbi or pastor. We had the fortunate experience of someone supporting us in just the right way at just the right time.
As fortunate as we have been to have had at least one person to influence us in our lives, I wonder what influence we have had on other people. Are we conscious of how we relate to others and what affect our interactions have had on the other person? Or is most of our focus on how the other person is affecting us?
You don't have to be a "person of influence" to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they've taught me." Scott Adams, American Cartoonist
Have you ever wondered why people react to you in a less than favorable way? Your awareness of their behavior towards you is a possible clue about what influence you may have on those other people. Take children, for instance; they are usually a good indicator of how things affect them. Picture children in a grocery store at meal time with a stressed out parent rushing them through the aisles. THEY get cranky and stressed out. They start bothering a brother or sister. Or they may start pulling things off the nearby shelves. The more irritated the parent becomes, the more wound up the child becomes. This ends in the child crying, the parent yelling and possibly other shoppers scurrying for cover. Worse yet, if you are the one behind this frazzled group at the register, you may carry some of their stress home with YOU.
Influence, defined by Webster as