Give them an extra hug. Say some extra kind and supportive words. If they’re not near, hold them close in your heart. Your thoughts matter and your emotional support will be felt.
Write them a note. Give them a call. Arrange to visit them. These are important and powerful moments. You will feel it. They will feel it. It will be remembered and cherished.
Hold family and friends close.
We remember moments. The good ones and less good ones. These powerful, emotional moments will have a great impact on our lives. These moments can lock in how we feel about someone for years or decades. Something said or done can really hit you in a few seconds.
Accidents, crimes, criticism, awards, compliments and victories have very strong moments attached to them. They are felt and they are memorable. They can be found in your memory bank without much effort. Though some need some real digging if you buried them deep.
Find these and extinguish their negative effect or use the positive ones to create great energy. Moments are powerful. Learn from them.
When having a discussion, watching someone or hearing a speech, ask yourself, “Why does this matter?”.
Not to the world, but to you. Why is it having an impact on you? What emotion or feeling is it stirring up inside you? Take some time to consider 5 or 6 reasons why this is important for you. It can really reveal some useful information about yourself.
Why does this matter? You’d be surprised.
If you are not achieving your goals, reread the title of this post six times. Motivation is a feeling and often it is fleeting. People might say that they feel motivated or didn’t feel motivated. Even those with a big Why to do something can feel unmotivated at times.
What you really need to build is some discipline in your life. This means that even when you lack motivation, don’t feel like it or want to take a break, your discipline will kick in and you’ll do it.
Few people would want to leave their comfy, warm, dry bed at 05:40am to go for a 10km run in the dark, cold and wet. If you leave the option to motivation, you might just give it a pass and go back to sleep. However, if you’ve developed discipline, that habit of doing things you’ve committed to will happen.
Discipline does not require ‘feeling like it’. Discipline means you push through despite not feeling like it.
Plan what you need to do and use your discipline to carry you through.
If you are not achieving, you lack discipline not motivation.
Always test the underlying information. Trust but verify is a useful phrase. Look at things from both sides or all angles. Take the emotion out of it. If you can find better context, use it. We will be better off. Consider the data presented.
It’s always lovely to see old friends. You have a shared past which can bind you in many ways. It’s nice to talk about times you’ve shared, changes and new adventures.
Even though a lot of time may have passed, you can catch up on key points quite easily. You know the key characters and events from before. Now you get an insight into what’s happened since.
It’s amazing how quick we can catch each other up on the truly important matters in our life. We can summarise years of activity into 15-30 minutes. Obviously more things happened and their impact was felt. But we can share the highlights, especially the positive or humorous.
Seeing old friends is definitely worth taking the time to do. Cherish those moments. They are your history in the making.
Deciding to hire someone, or not, will affect their life in ways we cannot know. This might be a make or break moment for the person in any number of ways. Same thing for school teams, club and county sports. Some will be elated by the decision and some will not. Some will take this opportunity and excel and others will let it drift out of their hands.
Decisions matter. Each and every one. Their impact cannot always be seen or known.
But decisions change lives. Yours. Theirs.
Be mindful.
Yes it takes longer to do things very well. But it is worth doing things to a high standard. Take the extra time. You’ll find it worthwhile.
Do a great job!
With every interaction, you should be aware of what outcome you want at the very end. Is it positive or negative? Do you want to win? Perhaps understanding would be your ideal outcome. Learning is often another. Some people want to be below board though. By that I mean they want something that isn’t morally right or is possibly on the side of, or even full blown, evil.
What’s your objective? Not just now but in the very end?
Sometimes you need to do way more than put the work in. You may even have to go a little crazy. Work 16 hour days. Make the calls you are not looking forward to. Pretend they say yes though. Imagine that. Now call them.
Move Heaven and Earth for your dreams. It’s possible and worth it.
