GiVING Hospitality with Experiences
An experience is something that you do or that happens to you, especially something important that affects you. It’s living through certain events, observing and feeling something in-the-moment.
In life there are several ways we can gain experience which ultimately gives us knowledge, skills, and understanding we may not have gained otherwise. With every experience, we gain more knowledge, perspective, and confidence.
The more experiences we have which challenge us emotionally and socially, to step outside our comfort zones, the sooner we’ll grow, progress, and mature from those challenges.
Remember this saying, “No challenge, no change.” For example, the first time we experience a disappointing situation – a bad grade on a test, a best friend moves away, losing a game, or an argument with someone we love – it’s extremely hard to deal with it.
We have a difficult time coping with our feelings and thoughts.
However, what happens next time? After having been challenged with the prior experience, we still feel disappointment or sadness in certain situations, but we have more confidence in our ability to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and keep moving ahead; because we’re still standing despite the sadness we experienced last time.
We’ve grown. We’ve matured. And we believe we can still move on and move forward in our lives to experience even more – the good, the bad, and the ugly.
With each experience, we learn more about ourselves and how to interact with other people. Experiences create moments that matter – in that very moment, but also into the future.
Experiences – Good, Bad, or Ugly – GiVE us Moments that Matter
Moments that Matter:
Give us joy – Elevating our emotions in a positive and enjoyable way
Impress us – We become impressed with ourselves and others as we fill up with pride; the good pride
Vision – We gain insight and learning into what could be, should be, or even what we can accomplish with clear vision for a future we can create
Equality – We realize the power of human connection, regardless of differences in race, color, creed, religion, or orientation.
The more we can experience connection with others, through meaningful conversation, despite how different we may be on the outside, the more we’ll experience positive emotions of appreciation, gratitude, and respect on the inside.
Experiencing these moments – big and small – help shape our ability to create positive experiences for everyone with whom we interact, wherever we go in life.
And our experience is always better when we’re together; united rather than divided.
Your GiVE Culture Challenge for this week:
Choose one significant experience in your life. Write some notes about it in a journal or simply type up some notes which describe the following:
- Where and when the experience happened
- Who was involved
- Exactly what happened
- What you did
- How you felt at the time
- How you feel about the experience now
Review the descriptions and notes you made about the experience. Answer the following questions:
- Why is this experience significant to me?
- What skills or knowledge did I enjoy using in this experience?
- What does this experience say about what I value?
- What does the experience say about what I do, could do or want to do?
When you’ve completed this exercise, you’ll have a list of words that describe what matters to you: the things that motivated you in the past and will likely motivate you in the future.
Most importantly, you’ll have identified and reinforced for yourself what types of experiences fill you up, so that you can pour into others.
You’ll become inspired to create inspiring and uplifting experiences for your own friends, family members, coworkers, and people in your community.
We’d love to hear your stories of how your friends, coworkers, students, or family members have shown you hospitality; or how you’ve taken it upon yourself to GiVE hospitality to others.
Share it in the Lead with Hospitality Facebook group here.
Have a great day, and never stop GiVING the best of yourself and looking for the best in others.
Taylor
