Motivational Insight: Discover the Word That Unlocks Adventures & Inspires Personal Growth

All you have to do is click the link at the top of today's show notes or head on over to the website gritgraceinspiration.com and get signed up today.

What if there was just one word that, when spoken out loud, could completely change your life?

I'm talking about one word.

Simple two-syllable word that when spoken, it can lead to new opportunities.

It can create relationships.

It can lead to experiences that you never even knew existed until you said just this one word.

Now, ironically, you speak this word every day, probably multiple times a day, especially every time you answer the telephone.

What is this word?

Well, if you don't know, well, you got to keep listening.

Because this is a word that I'm going to prove to you that when you use it with intention, it can completely change the trajectory of your life.

If nothing else, it can open your eyes to see people in a whole new light.

It can make the day a whole better day, a brighter day, all by just saying this one simple word.

It's all inside of today's 363rd episode of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Hey, I'm your host, Kevin Malow, and you are listening to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

When I'm getting ready to record an episode for the podcast, I'm always looking for inspiration from different sources.

Maybe it's something I'm here, maybe it's an email I open, or maybe it's something that I just experience out doing life.

Well, today, the inspiration came from an email.

Now, if you ever went back way back in the episode catalog of this podcast, you would find an interview with a guy named Sean Anderson.

He is known as the extra mile man.

And even though that interview was years ago, I've maintained an amazing friendship with Sean Anderson.

And one way that makes it real easy to stay up to date with what he's got going on with life, and more so to stay plugged into the amazing insights that this guy has to share is through his weekly Thursday newsletter.

It's called Extra Mile Thursday.

And it was in one of Sean's recent newsletters that sparked the curiosity to dive a little deeper and to share his amazing insights with you here on the podcast.

Now, I'm going to highly encourage you that before today's episode is over so that you don't lose track, please be sure to go down and check out the episode show notes, also known as the episode description, where I'm going to leave a link where you can sign up to start receiving Sean's email newsletter.

Like I said, comes to your inbox every Thursday.

Short, uplifting, powerful.

It literally is one of those newsletters that just totally just changes your day.

And while you're there, inside of the show notes, also be sure that you check out the link for the official newsletter for this podcast.

The newsletter is called Where Grit Meets Grace.

And that comes out each and every Friday morning.

So now you got two days of the week where you can have a little bit of something good waiting for you in the emails inbox.

So definitely be sure to check out the links for both of those inside of today's show notes.

But today, my friend, we're talking about the power of a single word, a two-syllable word that, when spoken out loud, has the power to change your life.

And that word, drum roll, please, is none other than the word hello.

It's nothing difficult, it's not complex, it's only two syllables.

We speak every time we open the door or we answer the phone.

We simply say hello.

And yet, if you think about it, hello, it's more than just a word.

It's an invitation.

It's you opening the door for somebody to speak.

It's you laying out a welcome mat for somebody to get to know you.

Saying hello, my friend, is a portal that you're opening to a whole new world of possibility.

It is basically the key that unlocks the door to new relationships, opportunities, to chances that you never would have had if you hadn't started a conversation by simply saying hello.

In Sean's Extra Mile Thursday newsletter, he shared the power of this word.

He was traveling.

He was in the airport.

Something that we all do.

It's totally boring.

We typically find ourselves digging into our phones, staring at the screen, listening to an audiobook, totally ignoring everyone else around us.

But, well, that's just not quite Sean Anderson's style.

So he set out to do something that maybe we should all start to do is to start to say hello a little bit more.

And by him deciding to simply say hello a little bit more often, look at the three amazing experiences that he had to share.

On one of his flights, he happened to be traveling with a college basketball team.

Now, lucky enough for Sean Anderson, he's a man big into college basketball.

So this was pretty cool.

Now, here's where the hello comes into play.

The flight was over, walking to get luggage, and he found himself walking next to the head coach.

So what did Sean do?

He simply said hello.

By him saying hello, he started up an awesome conversation with the head coach of the basketball team.

It wasn't anything in-depth, but he just got to meet somebody who he never would have gotten to meet if he didn't simply say hello.

So here you have what was supposed to be the end of a leg of a trip instead turned into a cool conversation about a mutual love for a sport.

His second chance at saying hello was with a fellow traveler on the second leg of his trip.

Now, this time when Sean said hello, it opened up to get to learn about this woman who was an adventure seeker.

She had been skydiving.

I think he said that she had already done six different jumps, was getting ready to do her seventh.

And through their conversation that all started by him simply saying hello, he got to understand her process for conquering fear, for what goes into the mindset of somebody willing to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

Not only did he find a way to pass the time, but he found a new way to look at life, to look at life from a perspective of somebody who's willing to jump out of an airplane, to go soaring through the sky time after time.

And then, of course, there was the third hello.

A man sitting across the aisle on the plane.

He noticed that he was kind of nervous, fidgeting.

So, what did Sean do?

He simply said, hello.

A simple act of kindness that led to an amazing, heartwarming story because this passenger was on his way to Miami to see his girlfriend, somebody who he hadn't seen in much too long.

Being on opposite sides of the country due to work meant that they didn't get to see each other very often.

And yet, this trip, he had decided was going to be different.

He actually pulled out of his pocket and showed Sean the engagement ring that he was about to present his girlfriend, soon to be his fiance.

This, a little insight into somebody's world, this amazing opportunity to get to be a part of something bigger than you or me, than Sean or this passenger, all because somebody was willing to simply say hello, to start a dialogue, to start a conversation.

My friend, the stories I'm sharing, they're not just stories, they're relationships, they're opportunities.

We never know what is going to be on the other side of us simply saying hello.

Because behind every person, every stranger we pass, they have a story.

They have lessons that we can learn from.

Who knows?

They may be somebody who we're meant to be doing life with.

But if we never have the courage, if we never have the time to simply say hello, to smile, to even just nod at somebody as you pass, to acknowledge their presence.

And then to even take it a step further and say hello, we never know all the missed opportunities that we're passing up on this life, all because we're so wrapped up in our own lives.

The whole point in today's episode, my friend, is to have you looking at the simple things in life from a little bit different angle.

What you thought was just a word that you say when you answer the phone, a word that you say when you answer the front door, it's actually an invitation.

It's a game-changing invitation to start a new relationship, to develop a friendship, something that you never would have known unless you had the courage to simply say hello.

And as I read through the end of Sean's newsletter, I couldn't help but think, wow, here we have a guy who just took an ordinary trip, a couple of flights, something that most of us don't think anything about.

And yet he turned it into a life-changing experience to show us all the power of simply saying hello.

It's not just the word, no, it's the intention behind it.

It's you deciding to possibly make someone's day by acknowledging them, by showing that you're interested in who they are, all because you simply said hello.

So as you end today's episode, I hope that I encourage you to stop waiting for others to say hello to you.

You start being the one to say hello to them and see what lies on the other side of that simple two-syllable word.

With that, my friend, I hope today's episode inspired you, motivated you, maybe got you a little bit excited about life, about opportunities, about relationships.

You just have to do something so simple, so normal, but now with a little bit more intention behind it.

I'm just simply saying hello!