Tag: encourage

Categories
Encouragement

A Language of Connection

Can our laguage make a difference when it comes to making a connection with others? Last year, it seemed every other phrase involved the term, “social distancing.” This article at Inc.com by Bill Murphy, Jr. had a good point about the term  and he proposed the following:

 

The less you can emphasize distance—and instead emphasize physical separation but social connection in your language—the better things might be for your employees.

Want to Be Happy? A Top Psychologist Says Stop ‘Social Distancing,’ and Do This Instead

We had to make a lot of adjustments last year. Is it possible we were affected so much by the challenging circumstances that we are unknowingly causing negative emotions to extend beyond a crisis?

Our language makes a difference when it comes to the results we want to see. Positive, encouraging language can influence outcomes. So let’s speak in a way that will do just that. We can influence the mood in a room, or even on a Zoom call by the words we speak.

Categories
motivation

Are you going to build up or tear down today?

Cartoon of a bully and his dog

When I drew this cartoon, I was thinking about what it would sound like if a school bully used psychiatric language to describe his actions. Since that time, my kids and one of my nephews have become very interested in psychology. Go figure!

Every day, we have a chance to tear someone down or build someone up with our words. We can give someone more hopelessness and make them feel lousy about themselves and the world, or encourage them to see there is hope and a future.

Not everyone is going to take the cue and be encouraging in return. In fact, some may scorn a positive attitude. After all, if someone receives hundreds of discouraging messages and then they hear one encouraging word, it will take more encouragement to reverse the trend.

There is no shortage of discouragement, ridicule, and doom in this world. Are you going to continue that trend, or are you going to be a positive difference today? Are you going to feel better by ridiculing another, or are you going to be a breath of fresh air and encourage someone today? Let’s make a positive choice.

Cartoon of a bully and his dog
Categories
love motivation

Find Some Ways to Spread Some Love

Cartoon of a girl and boy. The girl has notes with hearts on them. She says, "I'm trying to spread the love. Sticky notes help me do that."

The girl in today’s cartoon may not be practicing social distancing, but it’s okay. Stickie notes may be a way of spreading love without coming into close proximity to someone. Besides, there will be a time in the near future when she will once again get to spread the love using all the stickie notes she wants in any way she wants.

We are going through some challenging times right now. If you are quarantined at home right now, or if you suddenly find yourself with lots of time because you are out of work, find some ways to send encouragement and love to others. We still have electronic means of doing that. Perhaps, we can start posting encouraging words to combat all the doom and gloom that is going on right now.

Find some ways to help others. We are better when we offer help and encouragement rather than succumb to all the bad news. Find some ways to spread some love. It will lift your spirits, and it will remind you of what is good and really important.

Cartoon of a girl and boy. The girl has notes with hearts on them. She says, "I'm trying to spread the love. Sticky notes help me do that."
Categories
family

All the Sordid Details

Cartoon of a boy with a laptop. He says to his mom, "I'm writing a blog. Does your family or Dad's have all the sordid details?"

I had the privilege to ride with my father for the previous two days. We talked about various things from politics, to crazy drivers, to advice about finishing life’s race well.

No, there we didn’t discuss sordid details. Oh, and I know there are unsavory stories from the past, but we didn’t discuss them. Every family has skeletons in the closet. If you are interested in genealogy at all, you’ll soon find them.

One of the many lessons I’ve learned from my parents over the years is to stay positive. Whenever I would get down, my mother was there to say, “Keep looking up!” Whenever I would say something unkind, she would recite, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another.“ You can’t do too much mudslinging, insulting and roasting with that reminder.

So that’s why I take the opposite approach to the boy in my cartoon. I’ve had two great examples that have reminded me there is a much more excellent way to speak than to air someone’s dirty laundry.

Cartoon of a boy at a computer. He says to his mom, "I'm writing a blog. Does your family or Dad's have the most sordid details?"
Categories
motivation

The Weight of Worry

Two goldfish look worried as they see their bowl is cracked

I’m a professional worrier. I worry about my kids. I worry about the world my future grandkids may one day inherit. I worry too much about finances, climate, politics, and if we have enough of the vital things like popcorn in the cupboard and ice cream in the freezer. 

I come from a long line of worriers. I remember riding with my grandmother to pick up my grandfather from a trip. He was on a tour bus. The whole time, she was fretting that the bus could be in a fatal accident, that he possibly didn’t make the bus (it was long before cell phones), that she didn’t get the address to the pickup up site right. By the time she got all of her worries out, I was a nervous wreck and Grandpa was right there with group, waiting for us.

There have been times in my life when I’ve felt like the two goldfish in my illustration. I just know the bowl is going to burst any moment and I’ll be clinging for life. Can anybody relate?

Two goldfish look worried as they see their bowl is cracked

Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up.

Proverbs 12:25 (NLT)

This proverb reminds me of what a comfort it is to give a word of encouragement. It can be easy to get discouraged by all the bad news and the prophets of doom. But an encouraging word lightens my load. It lets me see how silly my worries can be. An encouraging word gives me hope and reminds me that the vast majority of things I worry about never happen.

This is why I have decided to blog daily. Tomorrow, I will have blogged daily for three months. I hope if you have followed along, you have been encouraged along the way.

So be encouraged, my friend! Things aren’t as bad as they seem. At the very least, you don’t live in a cracked fish bowl!