Happy Friday Friends!
I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day and a truly remarkable week coming to a successful close for you!
When I was in 7th grade I got to play football for the first time. After doing our warm-up and stretch our coaches would call us all together and then, when coach blew the whistle, we would find someone to hit as hard as we could (gotta love 7th grade football!!!). One day everybody was already hitting somebody and I had nobody to hit. So I quickly did what I thought was really smart; I found someone already on the ground and I stood over him like I was the one who had knocked him down. Brilliant idea Kev! Not only would I not get in trouble for not hitting anyone, Coach would think I was a great hitter. I was so proud of myself! When I told my Mom that evening what had happened she got this serious, stone cold look in her eye that only a mother can give (come on, you ALL know the look I am talking about!) and she said, "Kevin, don't ever make yourself look good at someone else's expense." The "brilliance" of a 7th grader was no match for the wisdom of a Mom.
Isn't it interesting how many of us never learn this lesson? Instead of each and every one of us, uniquely gifted and talented by the way, striving to become the best we can become we often simply want to be better - or at least look better - than someone else. How come we find it so hard to accept our strengths, gifts & abilities? How come we find it so hard to truly do our best and rest in peace with the outcomes this brings whether that be first place or last place?
I believe there are two key points to consider:
1. Instead of being the best we can become - again, uniquely so as we all have different talents, gifts & abilities - we get wrapped up and consumed with being better than someone else. This leads us to looking down on others who we don't deem to be "successful" - in the process forgetting that they too are uniquely talented, gifted and have ability...just maybe not in the same areas as we do - and it gives us a false, unfulfilling, sense of success that can prevent us from having true success by becoming the best we are capable of becoming.
2. Our hands can either be used to lift someone else up or they can be used to push someone else down...we will make that choice in literally every encounter we have! The words we speak, the respect we give (notice, it is a gift given), the encouragement we give, etc. will all either serve to lift the person up or to tear that person down. Lifting them up will help them become the best they can become which means they in turn will be able to help others, possibly even us, become the best they can become. Tearing them down will possibly cause them to stumble, will possibly cause them to tear down others in an attempt to make themselves feel better...pretty easy to see the impact this can have in the lives of our families, our workplace, our communities isn't it?
My hope and challenge for each and every one of us is that we will not try to make ourselves look good at someone else's expense. That today we will strive to become the best we can become at whatever it is we are pursuing and that we will respect, encourage and help others do the same in their lives.
Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for any of you or your families.
Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and cherish your precious families.
Kev
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