How Dove Chocolate Inspired Me to Change My Life

Today some of us were not having the best day at work, so I bought a bag of Dove milk chocolate caramels and shared them around my team.

Dove chocolates have this great campaign where they have little sayings inside the wrapper. The first chocolate I ate said "Dare to love completely." It made me stop, because I've actually been thinking about that a lot. I really don't think that I do that...not just with guys, but with everyone. I love those ladies who call everyone darling and sweetheart...why can't I be one? Then it changed to: why shouldn't I be one? I can be one just as well as anyone else, I just have to work through shyness issues first.

Then I got a chocolate that said "You're gorgeous." And it made me very sad, because that, I think, is an ultimate compliment. Better than hot or sexy, or even beautiful. And I didn't want to hear it from a chocolate wrapper. I wanted to hear it from someone.

Then I imagined some poor morbidly obese girl, watching 80s teen movies and bawling her eyes out while stuffing her face with chocolates, reading the wrappers and believing every word. And how sad, I thought, if she believed the chocolate wrappers and didn't think she had to change herself or work to become better. And what if that girl was me? What if I was unwilling to chnage something I needed to change in order to accomplish my goals and dreams, simply because I don't realize it's a problem?

Then I thought: There are probably tons of other girls who wish someone would tell them they're gorgeous. There are probably tons of guys who need some kind of ego boost as well.

Then: synthesis. If I work to change my shyness by letting people know positive things I notice about them, I will resolve all four of the above problems.

I've made goals loads of times in the past to be better about being friendly to people, complimenting people, smiling, saying hi; you know all those things that people say you should do all the time, because you never know how it could make someone's day or change their life. And it's worked for a while. But I've never quite gotten over that part of my brain that says "don't talk to people you don't trust, and don't trust anyone who hasn't given you years of evidence that they can be trusted." Kind of a road block. Also, I don't really do small talk. I'm socially handicapped in that area.

But this year has been all about stepping out of the swamp and onto higher ground. So here it goes: I'm going to express positive things about everyone around me when I notice something. Because everyone deserves to hear that they're gorgeous in some way, and expressing appreciation is a huge key to loving completely. I'm going to take Dove's advice, and I'm going to live better, and help others live better.

In April's conference, Elder Ballard gave a talk on this very subject: Finding Joy through Loving Service. His points about patiently building up a cache of small services, and small joys, and how evenutally that will overflow and bless your life with the ultmate blessings is the important thing to realize. I think that was my problem for so long...giving one person a compliment each day doesn't seem like it's going to make a difference in anybody's life. But it does, especially the person giving the compliments. And I want to be that person.

So, for those who read this, you're gorgeous. :)