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motivation

Putting the “Give” in Forgiveness

Cartoon of an angry, selfish boy. He says, "I'm mad! Why can't the world to my bidding?"

Forgiveness is an act of generosity. It can be much more difficult to give such mercy when the person offending you did a selfish act. And most offenses are offensive because they are selfish acts.

We can find it as difficult to give someone for minor as well as major offenses. We want that person to somehow pay for their selfish act. But the irony of it all is that the selfish person poisons us and makes us selfish.

When those minor offenses happen today at work, at home or just roaming about, make a choice to be giving and forgiving. Don’t let a selfish person make you selfish too.

Categories
motivation

Enthusiastic About Change

Enthusiasm is at the bottom of all progress! With it, there is accomplishment. Without it, there are only alibis.

Henry Ford

Change only comes when someone or a group is excited enough to make things happen. It gives people motivation to move forward. It allows people to see a vision that a better outcome is possible. 

An enthusiastic person can annoy others because they can’t see that things can be any different. Others may even do what they can to bring the other person down to their level.

Don’t be that person. Be enthusiastic. There is always a better way. There is always a possibilty to make things better. Start feeling it and begin to see what is possible!

Categories
Attitude motivation

How About Some Good News?

Cartoon of two cups. One is a styrofoam cup and says, "The news doesn't bother me. I'm very insulated against the world."

There are some days when it seems the best way to stay positive is to shun any news program or alerts and flee to a forest guaranteed to have no cell signal or wifi. I’ve found checking the news in the morning is the worst. Was the world really that bad while I slept? It makes me yearn for some refreshment.

Good news from far away is like cold water to the thirsty.

Proverbs 25:25 NLT

Seek some good news today. If you are in a place where Daylight Saving Time is observed, celebrate you had an extra hour to sleep in this morning. Spend time with someone who is positive and makes you feel alive. Create good news by being generous or doing a kind act for someone.

Too often, we gravitate towards bad news. It generates fear and dread. Seek some good news and be refreshed as you start a new week and month. After all, in the United States, November is a good month to focus on gratitude.

Categories
motivation

The Average Success

Boy stands on top of a box that says, "average." A girl says, "Are you going to keep standing here until everyone says you're above average?"
© 2019 Kevin Spear

Is success only reserved for the rich and geniuses? If success has alluded you, is there any hope? 

The average man who wins what we call success is not a genius. He is a man who has merely the ordinary qualities… who has developed those ordinary qualities to a more than ordinary degree.

Theodore Roosevelt

It is true some people are naturally gifted and can do things the rest of us only dream of. But there are naturally gifted people that will remain in obscurity. All of us have heard the story of a gifted athlete that couldn’t control himself and lost the contract. Each hometown has the story of their talented hero that could never get their act together.

Don’t worry about some who have talents you can only dream of. Develop what you have and use it to your fullest.

  • Be a lifelong learner
  • Learn something new every day
  • Develop goals and work towards them
    • This allows you to define what success looks like to you
  • Do something uncomfortable that makes you grow

Keep plugging away. If success has alluded you until now, you have today to develop your ordinary qualities.

Categories
motivation

Costumes and Goals in the Making

Cartoon of a boy and an older man

Some people go to great lengths in order to find the perfect Halloween costume. They may spend weeks perfecting the look, the character, the effect of their fear-producing ensemble tonight.

Others are more like me. When I was little, it didn’t occur to me to think of a trick-or-treat costume until October 30. I knew I was going to get candy no matter what I looked like. I blame Charlie Brown. Everyone in the Halloween special seemed to gravitate towards cutting holes in a bedsheet and going as a ghost. That seemed a perfectly reasonable costume to me.

Drifting into Halloween seems perfectly acceptable to me. Drifting through life is not. It is far better to plan your life than to drift through it. There may be a nice costume awaiting you in the linen closet, or your Grandpa’s attic. But if you want a fulfilling life, it is far better to plan what that looks like and reach for it.

Cartoon of a boy and an older man