How Do You Influence Others?

The idea for this blog came to me while I was back home visiting friends and family. I met an old manager of mine and in passing she mentioned that thought she stayed in her job longer than she should have. I responded that had she left early, she and I may never have met. She thanked me for my kind words, and I hope she went away feeling better over her decision.

For you see, our meeting shaped the decisions I made in the year that followed. She planted the seed in my mind to study teaching English and move to the other side of the world. A decision I will never regret. I am not sure how many of you are aware of the background behind me moving to Korea. There were several moments that led to that vital decision. And a few people who influenced it. And that is the point I want to focus on today. NOT my backstory, but the impact we have on others. Do you ever wonder on how much your words affect others? How some of your actions or words could have a positive, even life changing, impact on another? Meeting that manager, and a customer who was moving to South Korea, literally changed my life at a time when I felt displaced; unsure what to do next.

My original idea for this post was to focus on positive influences, since I am a positive person. However, in the wake of the Caroline Flack suicide, I felt the need to add this point. We need to check our words and our behaviours to others. We need to police our own minds before we say or do something that will hurt another or have a negative impact on them.

Lately I’ve seen too many posts about suicides of Korean celebs because of online harassment, of teens on Instagram who've killed themselves after putting out a poll asking whether they should. Now, ‘a petition calling for curbs on the British media in the wake of the death of TV presenter Caroline Flack has been handed in to the government. More than 850,000 people have signed up to support a so-called “Caroline’s Law”, which would make media bullying and harassment a criminal offence’ (source: BBC News). I hope it is seriously considered. I aim to be more like the manager that influenced my life for the better all those years ago. Build people up not tear them down.

Thank you for reading today's blog.

Stay Gold,

Rachel Articles for consideration: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51710897 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/15/teenage-girl-kills-herself-after-instagram-poll-in-malaysia https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/04/i-have-reported-on-30-korean-celebrity-suicides-the-blame-game-never-changes #blog #blogger #influence #carolineflack #thinkpositive #writer #author