On a recent sunny afternoon, Serena and I were sitting poolside along with many, many other people who were out catching some sun and doing a little swimming. As we dangled our feet in the water, quite a dramatic scene started to play itself out. A little boy who appeared to be about 3 years old climbed the steps to the high dive and walked out to the end. He peered over for a minute and then immediately turned and climbed back down. A few minutes later he climbed up again and walked out to the end. He stood on the end of the high dive for about 5 minutes pondering whether to jump or not. He was standing right on the edge looking over into the water with his fist clenched like he was ready to jump, but he just couldn't take that last step.

Everyone around the pool was silently watching, afraid to make any noise that might startle him and cause him to fall into the water. His mother finally jumped into the water, and after a few more minutes of coaxing got him to jump in. Everyone around the pool clapped and cheered for this little guy who immediately got out of the water, climbed back up the ladder and jumped off the high dive again.

This scene made me wonder what we all would be like if we had more people cheering us on. This little boy conquered a great fear and felt great about himself because people wanted to see him achieve. Unfortunately, the majority of the time if there are 100 things happening and 99 of them are positive, people will still choose to focus on the negative. Over the next couple of weeks, try to really look at the positive in other people. Cheer someone on and help them conquer their fears and achieve whatever their goals may be. Who knows, someone just may be doing that for you.