There are infinite possibilities of ways to connect and share when we interact with other people. There are countless opportunities to know what that person really cares about, and to share what is important to us. We can find common ground to share in, and for that moment, we are not alone.

Yet most times we choose to focus on relatively insignificant things. We love drama. We indulge in pettiness and arrogance. We strut ourselves and compete with one-ups-manship. We are so busy making our own point that we rarely even listen to what the other person is saying. W are left unfulfilled by the interaction because they didn’t reflect ourselves back to us they way we wanted. So we gossip about how they treated us poorly.

The tragedy of this pettiness is not the damage we inflict on those we interact with- although it does take its toll. Even more costly is the missed opportunity to connect and share with that person. Economists and investors call this opportunity cost. Investopedia defines opportunity cost as, “the cost of an alternative that must be foregone to pursue a certain action” (link).

So all of us will have phenomenal opportunities to connect with others in meaningful ways today. It is what human beings need most–especially in our present times. The question is, Will we have the courage to connect with them?

Will we walk through our inhibition and say “hi” in the line at the grocery store?…  Or will we stay in our own little world.

Will we choose to discover what is really going on with our friends and acquaintances? Will we share something real about ourselves?…  Or will we be clever, cool, and aloof?

So next time you find yourself going down a certain road in an interaction, ask yourself, “Of all the possibilities I have of sharing with this person, is this really what I want to choose?”