We have a disease in parts of our society. It’s a disease that is eating away at our customer service, relationships and quality of life. It makes individual encounters (and mass ones) hard to deal with…and exhausting.

It’s called “Doing What You Have To Do.”

In so many sectors of our society, we see people that are doing ONLY what they have to do for each other…and nothing more. You can’t call a customer service line, go to a retail store, or even read about our elected officials without seeing this creep in. Is there ANYONE that wants to call and deal with “customer service?” Why did this become a dirty word? It’s because people are doing what they HAVE to do…and nothing more. In reality…it’s a disease of laziness.

The problem is, when we look in a mirror it’s easy to justify doing “what we have to” in our own life. You don’t HAVE to go that extra mile for a customer, family member or friend. It’s not required (unfortunately). You don’t HAVE to wait that extra second to hold the door for a stranger. You don’t HAVE to send a card. You don’t HAVE to give a friend a surprise call just to say you miss them.

But isn’t it nice when people do it for us?

The good news is, we each have the antidote for this dreaded disease. It’s called “COULD DO.” You see the answer to this problem really isn’t making huge sweeping changes. It’s usually taking just a moment to put yourself in the other person’s shoes…and doing something to help them. We hear all the time that just that little extra can make a BIG difference. And of course it’s true. But what are we doing today for that other person? That person you don’t HAVE to help…but could.

Look in the mirror. Are you doing what you HAVE to do? Or are you doing what you COULD DO?