What Will Your Influence Be...?

Happy Friday Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you having a great day as a beautiful Friday morning dawns!

This is my 150th post. I thought this would be a great time to regain focus, to discuss briefly, what is meant by "What Will Your Influence Be...?" I am actually going to break this down in what I think is the reverse order. For most of us, the less directly the mirror reflects our face, the easier it is to accept.

What Will Your Influence Be...In Others Lives?

All of our lives are constantly influencing the lives of all of those we are privileged to cross paths with on a daily basis. In one of his books John C. Maxwell sites research that says that the most introverted person will influence more than 10,000 lives in their lifetime. Whether the interaction is long & deep or short & shallow, you & I influence the life of literally every single person we come into contact with every day - pretty deep if you think about it. Our body language, our words, our actions have an influence on everyone touched by us. There is no escaping the fact that you will have an influence on everyone; by being alive, walking the face of this earth and interacting with others, you influence.

The question then becomes "what will your influence be?" Knowing that you can't escape your influence - many try, a lot will argue...accountability can be difficult! - you and I must determine, will determine, what our influence will be. Will our influence be intentional, positive, encouraging or will it be thoughtless, negative, discouraging? For most of us, we will not think about or ask ourselves these questions - we are simply trying to survive, to the very best of our ability, each and every day. I get that...we are all fighting battles, have struggles, etc. We don't pause to think about the impact of our body language, our words, our actions. So we stop by the store on the way home, we have had a very tough day - we would all define tough differently - and we are rude to the person checking us out. We didn't mean it personally towards them, we didn't mean/want to hurt their feelings however we can't escape the fact that our life just influenced theirs. Now this person, perhaps negatively impacted by our influence, will interact with other customers throughout the day and then perhaps he or she will go home to a family. The influence you had in this persons life will now impact how they interact with and treat, influence, every single life they then interact with the rest of the day. Now it makes much more sense how you and I will influence more than 10,000 lives in our lifetime, huh? Please think about this Friends; the next time you interact with someone, think about the influence you want to have in their spouse/child/friends lives. The reality is whatever part of yourself you leave with the person you interact with will touch, to some degree, every single life in that persons life as well - intentional, positive, encouraging or thoughtless, negative, discouraging.

My heart as I write Happy Friday, post quotes/thoughts on Twitter and Facebook and share the idea of "What Will Your Influence Be...?" is not to judge or condemn. We ALL have struggles, challenges, hopes & dreams. My hope is to raise awareness, yours & mine. To recognize & realize that we are all pretty much the same - we all have hopes, dreams, fears, failures, insecurities. To recognize & realize that we all have talents, gifts & abilities...they are just different. I don't think the purpose is so much to compete - to be the "better" person - but rather to complete. To recognize & realize that we all have great potential to accomplish great things within our areas of gifting...and to encourage, empower & equip one another to fulfill our individual potential (complete). My hope is, as our awareness is raised, that we will make thoughtful, positive choices about our influence.

As I write and share about "What Will Your Influence Be...?" I speak to the priorities I have determined, established for my life. I can't tell you what your priorities should be - I can only testify to what I have found for my life. I would like to encourage you again to be thoughtful in this area. The reality is you and I are living out our priorities. If we don't like where we are in our life journey perhaps it is time to have a heart to heart with ourselves about our priorities. There is not a "right" or "wrong" answer. You are you, I am me...we simply have to determine what we stand for and believe, what matters to us and how we are going to live our lives. Please be mindful, however you answer the question of priorities is essentially answering the question of your legacy. What Will Your Influence Be...?

What Will Your Influence Be...In Your Life?

I told you I was starting this whole deal backwards. It is the things that we allow to influence our lives that determine our thoughts, body language, words, actions...our influence. What we allow in to our hearts, minds & spirits shapes everything we then think, say & do. Sadly, most of us give very little thoughts to these things. Ironic, funny, sad...I don't know the write adjective. The nursery rhyme says "be careful little eyes what you see" and "be careful little ears what you hear" however as adults we tend to ignore these things. Seriously, you are smart. Do you really think that you can listen to negativity, gossip, pour all kinds of bad things - you define it, I don't care...you get the point! - into your heart, mind & spirit without it having any sort of impact on your thoughts, your words, your actions and therefore on your relationships/interactions? What do you think my thoughts about, words to, actions with my wife would be like if I read & listened to things that spoke negatively about women & marriage? Do you really think you or I can put in negative, negative, negative and then have all my thoughts, words & actions be intentional, positive & encouraging? It just doesn't make sense and yet sadly, this is exactly what far to many people try to do.

Please listen Friends; you - your heart, mind, soul, goals, hopes, dreams, talents, gifts & abilities - are SO valuable. Please guard, protect & fight for them! Please fill yourself with things that will encourage, empower & equip you to fulfill your greatness. Please be intentional, please choose the things that are positive and encouraging...you are far to valuable for anything less!

Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always be willing to help you any way I can.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and please cherish your families & friends.

Kev