Shield Yourself

I want to tell you about a special person. He is the greeter extraordinaire at our hospital. Anyone that walks in the main lobby when he is there is always pleasantly surprised by a warm and gregarious greeting. His name is Stanley Christmas. Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Stanley. His real job is security. However, he is such a good example of service, that other department leaders have asked him to train their departments on hospitality!

He attempts to put a smile on everyone’s face. All day long he is upbeat and high energy; he is a happy go lucky guy. He said, “I take a personal interest in making people happy, when they are not feeling happy. To take the fear out of the unknown and the known. It is my job to let them know we care about them and they are in good hands and it is going to be alright.”

Sure he has his troubles; bills to pay, a family to raise and on-the-job concerns. But no one would know that. He wants to make your day better, and in doing so, his day will be better. When I spoke to him about his youth, he had his challenges to be sure. Inspired by his mother, grandmother and teacher, he made a decision; that every day he was going to “wear a shield of positivity.” He knows there are some people who don’t care for his shield or his methods, but he is not going to let them bring him down with them.

“You have to not let them crack your shield, your armor, no matter what they do or say. I let them know I will get them safely to where they need to go. If they are not behaving well they are usually acting out of fear. I let them know you can’t enter my world with negativity with something that is going to bring me down, but, if you need help I am still going to give it to you and take you to where you need to go. If you come in and try to push my buttons, well, the worse you get, the more helpful I will get. Some people get frustrated when they can’t crack your shield. That is when I turn it up a bit and recognize they are having a rough day and I never want to let them break that shield that guards me against negativity. “

“Be kind to everyone you meet. Those people might be going through something that you don’t understand. It is better to try to understand how you can make it better. If you don’t fuel the insult, you can kind of turn people’s minds around with kindness. I like to try to bring out the best in others.”

I think we could all use a shield like this. I know I could. When I am working with a challenging personality, I think about Stanley and his shield and he inspires me to wear the shield of positivity and try not to let anyone crack it.

(Aspiring to be a) Joy Spreader