Happy Friday Friends!
I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new opportunity begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! That's what today is, an opportunity! And guess what? You and I get to CHOOSE how we will live it! :)
This mornings Happy Friday would fall into the category of encouragement. I want to encourage us in how we think and how we choose to live. I am not going to share anything earth shattering or new...it is all stuff you and I have heard before. I have kind of struggled with that as I prepared to write this message. Thoughts of "we all know this" and "what's the use?" tried to take hold in my mind. I then remembered that it is the things that we consistently do that determine the quality of the lives we live. We have to remind ourselves...as we discussed last week, it is so easy to get 1 degree off course and before we know it, we are hundreds of miles from where we intended to be.
I want to share a few excerpts from a blog titled Be the thermostat, not the thermometer which was published on March 4, 2018. You can read the full blog at theeverydaystray.wordpress.com.
"The words thermometer and thermostat sound awfully similar but there is a huge difference. A thermometer is like a mirror, it reflects the temperature of its environment. You'll notice that the language of a thermometer is always influenced by what is going on around it. So when the temperature of a room is hot, the reading is high - if the temperature of the room drops, the reading drops too! Thermometers are in a constant state of change, meaning they can be both "up" and "down" within minutes."
"A thermostat, on the other hand, is used to regulate its environment."
"So we should always be the thermostat, not the thermometer. Why? Because anyone can tell you the temperature. When there's a problem, everyone can see there's a problem. When times are busy, everyone can see that it is busy. If we act like thermometers, and reflect our surroundings, we end up changing as often as British weather changes - which is a lot! When things go well, we are a vision of calm but when things start heating up, we lose our cool too. This is where the quote "show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are" comes from, because it is normal for people to become a product of their environment. But rather than be influenced by life's temperature - we should influence it!"
"What's especially important about being an effective thermostat, or leader is not letting everyone's else behavior effect yours. Thermostat leaders are a rare bunch that set the temperature for themselves, their teams or their organizations. They carry the positive attitude that creates the positive environment! They actively monitor the environment while constantly having a pulse on productivity, morale and stress levels. If the temperature for a team gets too hot because they're under pressure, or they're understaffed or they have looming deadlines, thermostat leaders cools things off by acting as a calming influence. While thermometer leaders lose trust, thermostat leaders build trust!"
"We all have it in us to be thermostats. The real question is: do you want to reflect the environment or do you want to be the change? Don't only fix things when they break, build things that last. True leadership isn't about reacting to the atmosphere, it's about setting it. Change people's expectations, change their perspective, lay the foundations for other to become thermostats too! The best advise is to read people before you lead people. Don't be afraid of standing out because you're different or you think different or you act different - so much good will come from worrying less about being like everybody else!"
So good! So powerful! So true! My wish, hope, and fervent prayer for each one of us Friends, is that we will be thermostats. It is a choice and we will have to make this choice over and over again as each new day dawns! This one is here...let's choose to be thermostats TODAY! :)
Have you ever really observed a dog? Or any other animal for that matter? My chocolate lab is not worried about trying to be a beagle or poodle or any other kind of dog. She is simply her. I tell her I love her and I think she is beautiful - yes, I talk to my dog!!! :) - and yet whether I tell her I love her, she's beautiful or I don't, she still always just loves me and follows me around wherever I go. She is not concerned about what I say to her, she is too busy being her own best self and loving me.
How different would our world be if we lived our lives that way? Simply embracing who and what we were created to be, instead of being jealous of what we are not or focusing on what we think we lack? It really is crazy, isn't it? Here you and I are, fearfully and wonderfully made, created on purpose for a great purpose for which we perfectly equipped, lacking nothing and we spend so much time, energy and thought wishing and trying to be something that we were never created to be. It really would be humorous if it were not so sad. Can you imagine if that during this day my beautiful chocolate lab decided that she was now going to be a bird? Can you even imagine what a failure she would be at being a bird? And how far she would be from becoming all that she was created to become? So why do we do it?
Friends, I beg and implore us to stop all the craziness. You, whoever and wherever you are, are special, you are more than enough, you are perfect. Please, be the you that you were created to be. Please don't worry about someone else's life or journey...it is theirs to walk not yours. This world needs the you that you were created to be, not some knock off version of someone else. If you have lost your way, please spend this weekend rediscovering who you are and what you were created to be. And for all of us, let's spend each day of our life striving to become all that we were created to become. We need to look no further than our fur babies to have this type of excellence modeled for us. :)
Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.
Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well.
Kev
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