The People We Pass By

Our days are filled with passing by other people. Whether it’s on foot or by car, I can’t help but wonder more and more about the story of those who enter and exit my field of vision. You see, I’m intentionally trying to master my situational awareness, especially as it pertains to other human beings. What are they thinking, feeling, and doing? What’s their story? What’s my intuition telling me?

I believe intuition is a skill that can be developed. Intuitional awareness is having the ability to understand or know something without any direct evidence. It requires sensing, feeling, and correlating what you know to be true. For example, I know that negative people are usually insecure about or afraid of something. When I encounter a negative person, I challenge myself to try to uncover the root cause using tactical empathy. If you want to know more about Tactical Empathy®, then The Black Swan Group is the ideal source. Chris Voss has pioneered the techniques.

Another thing that strikes me as I pass by others is that I never know who I’m passing. Everyone is worthy of dignity, yet culture skews our views and behavior, unfortunately. A universal truth is that no human being can claim importance over the next human being. However, we know all too well that because humans are flawed creatures, we are continually deceived into thinking and acting like we are better and superior to other humans.

Therefore, as I pass by people, I am continually attempting to optimize my intuitional awareness using the following frame of reference:

• I am curious about their story.
• I try to sense what signals they are sending.
• I believe they are no more or less important than me.
• I offer “neighborly love” whereby love is not a feeling, but an action. I am committed to demonstrating neighborly love not because of how lovely they look to me, but to make them feel loved.

The world is in desperate need of more neighborly love. As you pass by people this week, challenge yourself to adopt this frame of reference. Commit to tuning your intuitional awareness and mastering tactical empathy so that you can show neighborly love, especially when you don’t feel like it.

This post was originally published on June 28, 2020, and is republished today with minor enhancements.