When was the last time someone really encouraged you? Probably not recently enough I’d guess.
Encourage is oxygen to the soul someone once said, so here’s some encouragement for you:
You are capable of more than you could ever imagine – literally. You are capable of things that would seem impossible to you now. These aren’t just hollow words to make you feel good, they are the truth.
You are unique and you have something to offer, whether you realise it or not.
You really shouldn’t doubt yourself as much as you do. For if you would only leave that doubt behind for a moment you would find that a whole new world opens up to you.
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Sometimes what’s holding you back is a fear of the consequences of your actions. The unknown. What might happen.
If I do abc, then xyz could happen.
Gasp!
So-and-so won’t like it!
GASP!
I could fail!
Really big GASP!!!
Why not just do it anyway?
If you wait until the whole thing is perfectly planned out with every possible outcome considered and accounted for then you will never do anything. You will never be successful in anything. Your dreams will remain just dreams – unrealised.
Get into it now while you’re motivated. Enthusiasm can make up for a lot of mistakes along the way.
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- Talk to someone (at work) you haven’t really talked to before,
- Say sorry to someone for something you’ve done,
- Chuck out some stuff you don’t need,
- Do something you’ve been meaning to do for several months,
- Help someone.
If you do all of these you’ll pretty much guarantee your day will be awesome.
Image: Wolfgang Staudt
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Image: mboogiedown
Small things can make a big difference – even the most fleeting of events can have far reaching consequences. You just never know the effect that your actions will have on others, even the little things that you do.
I just read a tweet by someone who likes my blog. They might not even know I read it, but at the end of a long day it really made me feel good. It made me want to write this post.
The world is in dire straights. You smiling at people won’t stop wars or end global warming, but it will most likely make someone’s day.
And there can’t be anything wrong with that.
People seldom notice old clothes if you wear a big smile.
- Lee Mildon
A smile is an inexpensive way to change your looks.
- Charles Gordy
Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
- Mark Twain
Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles.
- George Eliot
All the statistics in the world can’t measure the warmth of a smile.
- Chris Hart
Peace begins with a smile.
- Mother Teresa
Image: superkas83
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It’s easy to find see the faults of others. Too easy. They’re just so glaringly obvious sometimes. Especially when you’re feeling cranky.
But what about the good points?
What if you looked for the good instead of the bad in people at all times?
Sounds like a good way to see the world.
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It was at something that I’ve been trying to do for a while. Success in this endeavour is important to me so I’m quite disappointed in myself. Especially because the way I failed was stupid. It was easily avoidable.
So what now then?
- Option 1 – I could wallow in my disappointment. Really savour it.
- Option 2 – I could immediately make plans to avoid this failure happening again. I could look at exactly what the problem was and come up with a strategy that would bring success next time.
If I’m going to go with option 2 then there’s probably no time like the present. I’m acutely aware of my failure at this point. But probably over the next week or two it will fade into history. If I want to use the motivation I feel now then I need to act now while it’s there.
This will help me avoid this failure again next time. But not only that, it will stop me pathetically wallowing in disappointment. Something that never brings anyone any good.
When you fail which option do you choose?
Image: nimbu
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We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.
- Marcus Fabius Quintilian
Everyone makes excuses.
Sometimes they’re so good we almost believe them ourselves.
Sometimes they may even be true.
But they’re still just excuses.
He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
- Benjamin Franklin
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Image: Denise Carbonell
That saying is as old as the hills, and so is the wisdom it contains.
If you’ve messed up then accept that and take responsibility for it. Make amends and then figure out how to avoid doing it again.
By blaming your tools you’re actually holding yourself back. You are lying to yourself. You’re telling yourself that you haven’t done anything wrong and that there isn’t anything you need to learn.
At the end of the day, the real loser in this will be YOU.
You won’t be able to learn from your mistakes, which is the whole reason we make mistakes anyway. They’re learning experiences, so learn! By blaming your tools, your colleagues, your family, the system…you are avoiding taking responsibility for your life and for your own personal development.
Stop shirking this responsibility and start improving your life.
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Sometimes you’re not sure if it’s going to work out. It just seems that you’ve worked hard to get what you want but that things aren’t really going your way.
Keep going.
So many people stop when their success is just around the corner. When it’s inches away, when it’s moments from their grasp…
If only they knew.
They would have kept going for just that little bit longer. They had the energy to keep going. But not the motivation. They’d run out of momentum. It was too hard, too difficult, too much effort…
They should have kept going.
The people who are really successful in life are the ones who have really worked hard at it. They are the ones who have kept going when others have stopped. They’ve kept having another shot at it. They haven’t given up at the first hurdle. They’ve endured, persevered, persisted…
They’ve kept going.
Image: Philo Nordlund
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I might get caught but I actually think I’d have a reasonable chance of getting away with it. In fact I think that lots of people could, it’s probably pretty easy. The guys that get caught doing it are normally idiots.
But I wouldn’t ever rob a bank.
Obviously the chance of going to jail is a deterrent, but the main reason I wouldn’t do it is because I don’t think stealing is right.
But the point is that I, along with lots of other people, could.
There are a lot of things that you could do but whether you should or not is a different question.
You could:
- Take that promotion even though you don’t really like the job, it’d just be for the money (or you could stay in the job you’re in that you actually enjoy even though it doesn’t pay as well)
- Go out with the most beautiful girl in school so all your friends would look up to, even though you don’t really like her personality (or you could go out with the girl you really like even if she’s not a supermodel)
- Spend several hours a day at the gym to have the perfect body so that people you don’t know and will never see again will look at you when you walk down the street (or you could just go for a run 3 times a week and be fit, healthy and have heaps more time on your hands)
The point is, bigger isn’t always better. The grass may look greener on the other side of the fence but the reality may be that you’re better where you are.
Image: david drexler
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