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

Kevin Lowe: What is this word? Well, if you don't know, well, you got to keep listening.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

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

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

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

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe it's an email I open, Or maybe it's something that I just experience out doing life.

Kevin Lowe: Well, today, the inspiration came from an email.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: It's called Extra Mile Thursday.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: Like I said, comes to your inbox every Thursday.

Kevin Lowe: Short, uplifting, powerful.

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: The newsletter is called Where Grit Meets Grace, and that comes out each and every Friday morning.

Kevin Lowe: So now you got two days of the week where you can have a little bit of something good waiting for you in the email's inbox.

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

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

Kevin Lowe: It's nothing difficult. It's not complex. It's only two syllables.

Kevin Lowe: We speak it every time we open the door or we answer the phone. We simply say hello.

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

Kevin Lowe: It's an invitation. It's you opening the door for somebody to speak.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

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

Kevin Lowe: He was traveling. He was in the airport.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: Now, lucky enough for Sean Anderson, he's a man big into college basketball. So this was pretty cool.

Kevin Lowe: Now, here's where the hello comes into play. The flight was over, walking to get luggage.

Kevin Lowe: And he found himself walking next to the head coach.

Kevin Lowe: So what did Sean do? He simply said, hello.

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: So here you have what was supposed to be the end of a leg of a trip.

Kevin Lowe: Instead turned into a cool conversation about a mutual love for his sport.

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: And then, of course, there was the third hello, a man sitting across the aisle on the plane.

Kevin Lowe: He noticed that he was kind of nervous, fidgeting.

Kevin Lowe: So what did Sean do? He simply said, hello.

Kevin Lowe: A simple act of kindness, it led to an amazing, heartwarming story.

Kevin Lowe: Because this passenger was on his way to Miami to see his girlfriend, somebody who he hadn't seen in much too long.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: My friend, the stories I'm sharing, they're not just stories.

Kevin Lowe: They're relationships. They're opportunities.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: They have lessons that we can learn from.

Kevin Lowe: Who knows? They may be somebody who we're meant to be doing life with.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

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

Kevin Lowe: Hello.

Kevin Lowe: It's not just the word. No, it's the intention behind it.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: Hello.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: You just have to do something so simple, so normal, but now with a little bit more intention behind it of just simply saying.

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