Personal Development and the Compassionate Person

The following article is from the new book, Getting Personal: A Guide to Personal Development by author and speaker, John Patrick Hickey.  To read more from John Patrick Hickey or to get his books, training and book him to speak to your church, business or group, visit our website at www.johnpatrickhickey.com.  

Compassion is a delicate quality. It can be easily manipulated, misrepresented, and twisted into something it is not. One can lose compassion as quickly as they seem to gain it. Few qualities are so tender and misused and yet, when allowed to grow and mature, the power of compassion can transform the world and, more importantly, a life. As Mark Twain said, “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”

Success-minded people take the quality of compassion seriously and with great respect. Compassion is, as Charles Dickens described it, “the milk of human kindness”. Compassion is truly caring for others, even more than we care for our own needs. Compassion is the ability to embrace the challenges that others face, and walk with them through what may be very dark times. In short, compassion is just being kind to others, no matter who those “others” may be.

When I said that compassion can be easily manipulated, I meant that we can be made to think we feel compassion when actually all we feel is guilt. Compassion is a nice word that makes us feel good about ourselves. Everyone wants to think they are a person of compassion. However, the fact is that compassion is not a feeling. To truly be compassionate requires action. Feeling bad for others is not enough: you must be willing to take some kind of action to make a change or help solve the problem.

Seeing pictures of starving or abused children, families going through the rubble that was once their home after a storm, or mistreated and abused animals tug on our hearts. We feel bad and, the truth is, it is meant to make us feel bad. Tossing a few dollars at the problem to make us feel better is not the answer. I know that there are good organizations that can do the work we cannot, and that they need our financial support. I am not saying do not support such work, but, there is more to be done that you really can do something about. All around us are people who need our help and encouragement.

We have friends and family who are struggling with difficulties or facing great loss and trying times. Success-minded people know that true kindness is a gift that you must give freely. Kindness is never bought, taken or given under condition.

When we practice kindness as a life style, we find that not only are we able to make a difference in the lives of others, but we too are uplifted and strengthened. You cannot be depressed, down-hearted and angry, and kind at the same time. Therefore, if you work to always be kind and think of the welfare of the others around you, you will find your own difficulties fading away.

Here is a great suggestion for an exercise from the late author and publisher, Og Mandino: “Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.” If you follow this simple plan you will see that not only are you a better person, but you have helped others to be better, too.

To discover how you can achieve the dream you have believed was impossible for too long, read Getting Personal: A Guide to Personal Development by John Patrick Hickey.  You can get a signed copy for yourself and get one for a friend, by going to http://www.johnpatrickhickey.com/it-is-good-to-set-goals-better-to-achieve-then/.  Now available on Kindle, Oops! Did I Really Post That? Online Etiquette in the Digital Age by John Patrick Hickey.

© 2016 John Patrick Hickey. No part of this may be reprinted or published without permission of the author.