Share Your Courage

Thank you all for such sweet birthday wishes. It made my day!

Wisdom!

Kara Lawson: Handle Hard Better Coach is back with another motivational speech. This time she reminds us that things don't get easier in life, we just become better equipped to handle them....

The Magic of Encouraging Yourself

How many times do you have to hear something to believe it.
I'm talking about the important messages that our friends, family, mentors, teachers, coaches, and sometimes strangers say to us that are the most important messages about our unique strengths and gifts.
I don't know about you, but although I think of myself as a good listener to other people, I realized recently that my track record of listening to the messages directed at me could use some work - serious work!
Starting in my teens and throughout my young adulthood, many people told me that I was creative. I had nothing to hang that idea on. I knew I wasn't an artist in the traditional sense.
I sometimes joke with the graphic artists I work with that they have nothing to worry about - I draw stick figures.
It never occurred to me that my creativity resided in my imagination, in the world of ideas and strategies.
I didn't know how to explore it and took a circuitous route to define ways to use it that would work for me
The point is that I spent years wandering around - I got good experience and created many different things, still not thinking about how I was creative. Yikes.
I was stuck in a typical thinking framework that promotes academic success as the only measure that counted- ugh.
More importantly, though, because of all the assumptions crowding my mind, I didn't hear the important messages delivered to me with love.
At one point, I gave up all those assumptions and realized I could use my creativity, which changed my life.
Think back on messages you have heard many times and perhaps discounted for whatever reason.
Others can often see what we cannot, and the ones willing to tell us are the messengers of hope and brilliance.
https:theencouragementproject.com

Learn the magic of encouraging yourself - sign up for our mini-workshop Dec. 16 at 12pm - Free -
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The one thing that I am trying to do now is to listen to those messages. Then follow them up with more curiosity.
It happens too often that when we don't understand something we

When you get the time wrong, it's good to encourage yourself by saying:
"Self, you're moving too fast. Just correct it and move on!"

The Magic of Encouraging Yourself

If you are your own worst critic, if you wish you could find more joy, purpose, and expand your definition of yourself, please consider joining us!

The Magic of Encouraging Yourself

How do we put off what we most want and why the heck do we do that?
There are so many reasons - most of them fairly weak.
I think getting much more intentional about the things I want to create is probably part of the answer.
I can see a big idea, but it's fuzzy without details (my lifelong curse).
If we only have a big hazy idea, it's really no surprise that we don't see it coming to fruition.
Since it's December 1st, and the season of joy - I am going to take this subject on and see how much joy I can create over this month not only for others, but for myself as well.
It's a bit hard to create joy if you don't experience that state yourself!
I'm an early riser. I make my coffee, drink a glass of lemon water while I'm waiting for it to brew and spend time reading some news and then meditating. I'm not great at the meditating part, but it's a work in progress.
This morning I got a text from a good friend. it was a short, funny joke. It made me laugh out loud.
What a great way to start the day.
It is not hard to find one funny thing. If you are having a hard time, look up all the silly things they do on the Tonight Show -- Jimmy Fallon is so creative about the way he makes people laugh and it is really funny and fun.
That's a good start for joy on my end.
As I go out into the world today, I'm going to take that joke and share it with a few people. Hopfully, sparking some joy in them.
Here it is:
I said to myself,
"Self"
(and I knew it was me, cause I recognized my voice, and I was wearing my underwear)
"Today is going to be a good day!"

When November 1st comes around, I start thinking about Thanksgiving.
The amazing Francesca Zampaglione, the Podcast host of Office Flip-Flops, invited me to record gratitude for her Thanksgiving message. After I completed it, I started thinking about creating a specific kind of gratitude this year - starting with Thanksgiving.
Seems like a good time when everyone has it on their radar, right?
There are many things I am grateful for, but this year I am focusing on thanking specific people who deserve the appreciation that comes from doing stuff that others may take for granted.
There is, of course, a personal list of many people who have helped me think about this project, and who have offered their time or skills to make it better. It's a big lift to get something like this off the ground - even when it's needed so badly by the world.
I'm going to start today because if I wait, I'll have too many notes to write.
I believe in written notes because I know people keep them.
They keep them for the days when, as my former husband used to say, it's coming down so hard, you need a hat!
They keep them for the times when their hope for a better job, a better friend, a better spouse or children, or a better life fades a little, and hope is nowhere to be found.
The thing about these notes is that they should be fun, upbeat, sometimes funny, and...appreciative.
I want to write one today to a woman I don't really know very well, but who chaired our church fair, a major production, so well and made it look effortless. Everyone appreciated her - what a role model.
Once you start thinking of people you appreciate, write it down. I get a great name sometimes, and if I don't write it down, seventeen other things take up space in my brain, and I forget. Ugh.
I'll let you know how it's going and I invite you to join me and share your stories of what happened. I think you will be surprised happily - and putting some encouragement into the world is a good start to any day.