Encouragement and Rebuilding

I have read many stories about people rebuilding their lives. We live in a day that is volatile. Many people are rebuilding financially, emotionally, physically and spiritually. Brokenness seems to be the norm, not the exception. People rebuild because of personal mistakes. People rebuild because of the mistakes others. Whatever the reason, we need to be encouraged as we rebuild.

Rebuilding is normal. You don't make it through life without hurdles. Encouragement is needed when you face hurdles. I have watched many sports events that prove my point. Have you ever watched a football game were a team has been behind three quarters and then suddenly scores a lot of points in the fourth quarter to win? How do they win? They win because more than 50,000 people start stomping and screaming for their team. Let's just say they are encouraged by a lot of people. The power of encouragement while rebuilding can be the factor for total victory.

When you rebuild remember the following:

1. Rebuilding is refocusing - when you rebuild you are refocusing your energies for a better outcome. You are refocusing for an outcome that is beneficial for yourself and others.
2. Rebuilding is fruitful - when you rebuild you learn. When you learn you grow. When you grow you help others.
3. Rebuilding is fortifying - to fortify means you are trying to strengthen something. When you rebuild you strengthen your character. When you strengthen your character you strengthen others.
4. Rebuilding is offering hope - when you rebuild you offer hope to your situation. When you overcome through that hope you are able to encourage others to overcome.
5. Rebuilding is offering a future - rebuilding your life is rebuilding your future. Rebuilding your future gives hope to those watching.
6. Rebuilding is empowering others - as people watch you rebuild your life they are encouraged to do the same. If you could rebuild they can rebuild. You never get through life without the need to rebuild something.
7. Rebuilding is focusing on positive outcomes - rebuilding means you need a positive outcome. Everyone needs positive outcomes. 
8. Rebuilding is breaking things down - break things into manageable blocks and tackle one thing at a time.

Everyone needs to be encouraged. If you are rebuilding your life, no matter how young or old you are, be encouraged. Make a plan and work your plan. And on the road to recovery take time to encourage someone else.

Be Encouraged,

Rick

Encouragement and Failure

Ever wonder how to get back up after you fail? Failure has been experienced by everyone and if focused upon can be debilitating for life. Some people find it hard to get past the mistakes they have made to find a new future. Some find it hard to get past mistakes or failures because others will not allow them forget where and when they have failed.

No one has a right to hold things over others. The last time I looked at the news, major candidates were fumbling over words and major leaders were making incredible mistakes. So I think it is time to set people free. You can be free from your failures by the power of encouragement. You can either stay in your prison or choose to be free. Your failures can be the launching pad for great things to happen in your life.

It has been almost a year since I have posted on this blog because I failed. I made mistakes that hurt me and others. I did not feel worthy to post an entry. You may ask, "What did you do?" I hit a wall of burnout and bitterness. I said things that I wish I hadn't. I lost very dear friends because of my own failure to manage my feelings and my words. I have paid a high price and it has taken a year to refocus and get back on my feet.

With that said, let me encourage you if you have failed and need to get back up. Here is a list of things to do to get back into the game of life:

 
1. Forgive Yourself- Self-condemnation is horrible and can keep you in an emotional prison for the rest of your life.
2. Learn from Your Failures- Failure has its consequences but you can learn from it and help others. It doesn't mean you will never make another mistake. It means you can be a lifelong learner and help others.
3. Help Others By Using Your Own Failures-This is critical. You have the ability to help someone else with words of encouragement. Find someone who is hurting and invest in them even if they have nothing to give you. When you unlock your potential to help others you will find freedom to overcome, serve others, and help yourself.
4. Talk About Your Failures- Now don't get me wrong here. Don't talk about your failures to get pity. Talk about your failures to give someone else hope. Capitalize on your failures to help someone else have the courage to get back up and face life. Don't make it about you. Make it about helping someone else.
5. Make a Plan to Encourage Others- Set a goal to find one person a day to encourage. Do not allow anyone to limit your ability to encourage others by holding anything over your head.
6. Don't Listen To Hecklers- Hecklers are people who have forgotten where they have come from. Remember, failure can be the launching pad for great things to come. Why? Because when you choose to accept your failure you learn and grow. When you learn and grow you can help others with the wisdom you have gained.
7. Speak Positively - Saying negative things about other people drives people away from you. Saying positive things about other people draws positive people your way. Staying negative about a situation holds you captive to that situation. Seeing the positive empowers you to follow your plan and overcome.
8. Don't Run- When you fail, face it and own it. Passing the buck never helps you to grow and learn. More people will respect you for owning your own failure. It may actually shut them up. Wouldn't that be nice!
9. Get Up!-Refuse to allow your personal failures to keep you in a prison of depression. Don't stay locked in a room or cubical. You have something to offer someone else. Get moving. Live until your last breath and never quit.

Be Encouraged,
Rick

 

Encouragement and Hope

 Many people take the power of encouragement for granted. They look at encouraging the heart as something that is weak. I dare to challenge that because people need encouragement to step up to and face difficult circumstances.

Connected to encouragement is hope. Several people have made huge turnarounds in their life because of hope. Encouragement and hope go together. When you encourage somebody you give them hope to try again. Hope is a powerful word that produces new futures. Have you ever watched an action flick when it seems as though something is impossible? Then in the midst of the impossibilities someone makes a mini speech to create hope. The little speech about hope rallies the person or persons up against the wall to dig in and excel.

You see encouragement and hope go together. There is power in encouragement because of the hope it gives. I hate negativity. I don't like going to doctors who are negative. I don't like being around people who are constantly negative. Do you know why? Because negativity discourages and steals hope. There are always mountains to climb. That is the exciting thing about life. You need encouragement and hope to climb those mountains.

Let me list a few things that encouragement and hope provide:

1. Inner strength
2. Peace
3. Confidence
4. Desire
5. Determination

I think you understand where I'm going. The power of encouragement provides hope for people, companies, situations…the list could go on. So the next time you are sarcastic with someone who has the gift of encouragement and utilizes that gift, remember, you may need that gift to rise above a difficult situation in your own life. You have the power to give life. Encouragement produces life in the heart of a person by spoken words - words of hope. So harness the power of encouragement and give it to another person by the words that you speak to them. By doing this you will change your world one person at a time.

Be Encouraged,
Rick

Encouragement and Standards

Encouraging the heart is not for the weak leader. It is not easy to choose words of life.  Leadership is about choosing to stay on track in the face of negative spectators. Encouragement is a choice.  Encouragement can change the culture of an organization.  I have already mentioned this in my previous blogs.  How do you change the culture by encouragement?

The first way is to set clear standards.  Studies show that people in an organization will respond to clear expectations with words of encouragement. Some people in leadership circles insist on setting tough standards without speaking words of life. Here are some things to remember when setting standards to encourage the heart:

1.  Setting clear expectations through solid values and behaviors will energize people.
2.  Standards equal goals and values.
3.  Strong values determine goals that are set for the long haul.
4.  Goals for the long haul give people vision and energize an organization.
5.  Speaking life through values and vision encourages the heart to move beyond normal to exceptional.

Encouraging the heart is a choice.  If you use encouragement long enough it will change the life of your organization.  It takes a strong leader to choose words of life over a negative and a critical spirit.  Arrogance has no place in leadership.  To think that you have no time to speak life into a lifeless situation means that you've taken the easy way out. 

I love my podiatrist.  He is a man who is patient and gives hope. A little over a year ago I was facing a possible amputation.  He chose to speak words of life to me and take the longer path of healing.  He refused to believe that I had to lose part of my limb to be healthy.  His words of encouragement gave me hope for healing.  As a result of his encouragement I am on the path to complete recovery.

You have a choice today to lead by encouraging others. Take a walk through your organization and choose words that will encourage the heart, give clear vision, and establish values that will be consistent with encouraging the organization.  When you lead with the power of encouragement, you lead with honor and courage.  Leadership is about serving.  Leadership is about taking ordinary people to a new place that they never thought they could go through encouraging their hearts.  If you choose to encourage the heart, you will set a clear standard and propel your organization to new place. 

So, find someone to speak life to today.  When you do you will change your world one person at a time.

Be Encouraged,
Rick

Encouragement and Peace

I have always believed that it is more blessed to give than it is to receive.  I know I am not the originator of that saying but I have learned that it is true.  I am in the business of watching and helping people.  I have noticed that there seems to be a lack of peace in the human heart.  You can see unrest in people's eyes everywhere you go.  Why?  I believe we have forgotten how to give.  We are so focused on ourselves - our needs, our wants - that we have become "lovers of self" to  the extreme.

Peace comes with an understanding of the need to give.  Give what?  Give yourself.  I am not speaking of money, I am speaking of  taking the time to give words that will motivate another human being toward greatness.  You have two choices here:  speak words of encouragement or don't speak words of encouragement. 

When you choose peace through speaking words of encouragement you avoid the following:
1. Putting down others to build yourself up
2. Saying negative words about others to prove your point
3. Exploiting the "sins" of someone and avoiding hypocracy
4. Undermining someone else with your negative comments
5. Choosing unrest through negativity instead of peace through giving encouragement

The list could go on...

Looking for some internal peace?  Try choosing to encourage someone else.  Try giving a lift to someone you may think is less important.  Why not humble yourself and give the gift of encouragement? In doing so, you may run into peace.  That's not a bad thing.

Be Encouraged,
Rick

Encouragement and Happiness

Encouraging the heart is about happiness.  Have you ever wondered what really makes a person happy?  I am in the people business.  I meet and talk with people from poor to rich.  As I meet with people and watch their lives I have noticed some issues that really bring happiness.  One issue in particular is validation. Validation is not about receiving something.  It is about the giving of yourself that will bring natural rewards.

Happiness begins with validation.  You can bring validation to someone else.  This is a leadership principle discussed in a great book called Encouraging The Heart.  You can purchase this book at Amazon.com.  Just click on the Amazon link and it will take you to Amazon's site.  You can read about this book.  One of the issues this book discusses when encouraging an organization is validation.  Validation is making someone else feel good.  It is recognizing the gifts and graces of another person and building that person up by validating or recognizing that person on a regular basis.  This principle is necessary if you want to build a strong team.

Again the book is called Encouraging The Heart.  This principle works great in relationship-building.  If you are in the people business than you know how important it is to recognize others.  Establishing great friendships is one key to success.  Another good book to read on this topic is Encouraging Hands Encouraging Hearts.  This book is about building friendships that bring happiness.

My wife and I have five kids and 10 grand kids. Wow!! Where did time go?  Anyway two of our kids, Eddie and Jamie,  have learned the secret of validation through relationship-building.  Both are successful in business.  Both have learned that working hard and validating relationships brings returns.  The larger your field of validation goes the larger the returns in friendship and business.  Both Eddie and Jamie are learning that.  They are both building businesses through validating others in relationships.  They are both hard workers.  They both bring validation to their customers and co-workers.  In their own respect, they are mastering relationships through validation.  Validation builds results and rewards in friendships and in business.

Happiness does come through validating others.  It is not self-focused but focuses on others.  Real happiness is about encouraging someone else.  It is about giving yourself to others.  I worked for a man who sent birthday cards and anniversary cards to all of his clients.   He built healthy relationships through validating others.  When he died, hundreds of people came to pay their last respects.  The funeral home director said "this must be a great man for so many people to come and pay their last respects."  His greatness came through validating others.  He was happy in business and life because he validated others   And get this...he validated others even when they brought no return to him or his business.

If you want happiness, learn how to validate others.  Learn the secret of encouraging the hearts of others.  If you want to build your organization then validate others in your organization.  Validation builds loyalty and brings personal rewards.  So step out of yourself and validate someone else.  When you do you will change your world one person at a time.

Be Encouraged,
Rick

Building Strategies Through Encouragement

Have you ever heard the old saying "failure to plan is a plan to fail?"  I have heard it over and over.  I believe it and have repeated it to those that work on my team.  So, why is it so hard at times to build strategies when you know that success hinges on those strategies?  Simple, people get discouraged.

Every leader has the responsibility to recognize what I would call "negative impact" people or situations.  Negative impact people or situations are what military people call critical terrain.  Before our armed forces try to conquer, they build strategies based on overtaking critical terrain.  It is the terrain that is necessary to take in order to gain a foothold in battle and win the war.  This is done when the leader encourages his or her team to push pass barricades and move to a new place.

Encouragement is necessary when it comes to building strategies because it brings necessary elements of empowerment to the table.  There really needs to be an encourager at the helm so that when critical terrain is encountered, fear and discouragement can be overcome.  Now there are certain things to understand about encouragement and building strategies that will ensure success.  Here is a list of 10 ideas that will help when encouraging to build strategies:

1. The leader must be an encourager by showing up.
2. The leader must believe in his or her own heart that their words of encouragement can make a difference.
3. The leader must encourage his team to be proactive.
4. The leader must encourage his team to face fears.
5. The leader must learn who the critical terrain people are on his team.
6. The leader must learn what the critical terrain situations are that hinder his team.
7. The leader must put right people in right places to focus on which strategies can be built to lead and  
    overcome.
8. The leader must use words of affirmation and inspiration.
9. The leader must discourage negativity while looking at hard facts.
10. The leader must constantly encourage every member of the team to step up and use the gifts they
      have to build a viable strategy to overcome.

Constant encouragement is necessary to build strategies to overcome.  So find your key people. Encourage them by recognizing their gifts.  Empower your key people to make a difference.  Empower your key players to be "out-of-the-box" thinkers.  Start small with simple tasks to build confidence.  Before you know it, your team will be building strategies that will bring victory.  So find someone to encourage.  When you do, you will change your world one person at a time.

Be Encouraged,
Rick