Encouragement Is So Simple--A Paragraph a Day

I find it fascinating just how rare encouragement seems to be these days.  It's something that's so incredibly simple to give, yet relatively rare when we compare it to things like criticism and sarcasm.  So many people that I see in the world want to be critics or comedians, telling other people the flaws they see or deciding to make a joke about something rather than giving positive feedback that can give the other person strength and optimism.  I've seen far too many people, young and old, share an achievement with someone else only to hear something like, "Don't give up your day job," a response that's sure to discourage rather than encourage.  And even when someone follows up a response like that with "I'm just kidding," it doesn't really matter--the damage has been done.  First responses are incredibly important to us, and when we try to be funny or harsh rather than encouraging, we've lost a great opportunity to help out another person with words that are free and easy to say, choosing instead to focus on ourselves and our opinions.  Of course, encouragement must be sincere and we shouldn't lie to someone who has brought us something awful and tell them it's good, but we can still encourage the effort involved.  In my life, relatively few people actively encouraged me, and I know that those people who did live on in my heart as very dear people, indeed.