Compassion, understanding, kindness, and care are all words that come to mind when we think of empathy. But these days it seems that we see less and less of that in our society. Maybe it’s social media. Maybe it’s our busy schedules or our seemingly declining mental health. Maybe we can even blame some of it on the lasting effects of the pandemic. Whatever it is, humans just don’t seem to have as much empathy for one another as they used to.

Sometimes growth happens naturally and unexpectedly. Life lessons, mistakes we’ve made, teachable moments, or just being forced to expand even if we may have resisted. But what if we chose to focus on learning and growing and were intentional about it? What if we were determined that this is the year we are going to make learning a priority? How much more could we grow? How much could we share with others? We tell ourselves that learning a new skill, becoming more self-aware, or taking that training can wait. Afterall, we are busy people who have to set priortities. What if in this coming year we put learning first? We may see that other things in our lives just fall into place.