The Elevator Test
| Category: | Courteous |
|---|---|
| Notes: | Small moments reveal true character - courtesy in brief interactions matters. |
You're rushing to an elevator. The doors start to close, and someone inside reaches to hold them for you. Or maybe you're the one inside, and someone is hurrying toward you. Do you help, or do you let the doors close?
It's a tiny moment, barely worth thinking about. But tiny moments like these reveal whether courtesy is real or just something you turn on when it benefits you. The true test of courtesy isn't how you behave at a formal dinner or when adults are watching - it's how you treat strangers in brief, unimportant moments when there's no reward for being kind.
A Scout is courteous all the time, not just when it's convenient or when someone important is watching. When courtesy becomes a habit rather than a performance, you become the kind of person who makes the world a little better in a thousand small ways. And those small ways matter more than you think.