Sustainable Wellness 101- A Living Example
By Cristina Smith
The only certain means of success is to render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what your task may be. ~Og Mandino
Every Wednesday morning I leave my house at 6:30 a.m. to meet with my friend for breakfast at the same place. We canoodle over our business projects and personal evolution~ my idea of a great time. The funny thing about it is that we go to the same place every week.
It wasn’t always that way. When we first started setting time aside for our get-togethers, we would pick different restaurants. The food didn’t really matter as much as that the location was convenient and it opened at the appointed time. That all changed once we met Ramon.
Ramon is amazing. He is always in a good mood with a smile on his face at 7:00 every Wednesday morning. And as far as I know, he has never had a bad day. He is our waiter at the restaurant which has become a business imperative over the last several years. And he exemplifies what anyone can achieve in positively influencing his or her world regardless of societal stature or job role in the world. He infuses his environment with a service attitude filled with joy.
My friend and I can no longer imagine another place to conduct our weekly two-hour sessions. It’s all because of Ramon. When we walk in the door, he has my Earl Grey tea on the table with an extra tea bag before I even sit down. He knows that most of the time I want to eat Eggs Florentine, though if I don’t say, “You know what I want,” he always awaits my decision politely. Some weeks I feel like surprising him just because and order something different. The truth is that my friend and I have become loyal to this place because of Ramon.
The reason for Ramon’s success? His big, beautiful heart. It’s the way he creates himself as a center of positivity in the world in which he influences. He greets and treats every person as a king and they feel it. This attitude in no way lessens him; in fact it has elevated him, at least in my breakfast world, into an asset and comfort. He cares. Even though he doesn’t know my name, he knows what I eat. He knows the way my friend likes her coffee and at what time we like to order our food. He even remembers not to put watermelon on our plates as a fruit garnish. I know that he cares about the quality of my experience while I am in his sphere of influence.
