Do It Anyway

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” ― Mother Teresa

The Dash

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”  ~Pericles

 

Here’s something I noticed about gravestones.  It’s the fact that what people remember is not the date of birth or the date of death but the dash in between and how the person spent that time to make a difference in the world.  If you haven’t been making the most of the dash, start today and make a positive difference in the lives you touch.

A Fundamental Lesson

We seem to be bombarded these days with so many who are consumed with themselves. Whether it’s a lack of self-worth, some need to grab limelight, or the ridiculous numbers of ways to proclaim every personal activity on social media, we are living in a world of me-me-me.

Well, yesterday I read the following quote that teaches a blunt lesson if you want to lead a life of significance to others…

“Talent is God-given, be grateful; praise is people-given, be humble; conceit is self-given, be careful.” – from The Uncommon Challenge, Tony Dungy

Rick Warren put it really well in the first lines of his book A Purpose Driven Life: “It’s not about you. The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness.”

Example

Here is the power of leadership by example in a nutshell…

“Do not kiss your children so they will kiss you back but so they will kiss their children, and their children’s children.” ~ Noah benShea

Lesson for Today

Live before you die.

What do you say when you must say farewell?

A dear friend and follower of Me#3 moved on to the next phase of her life journey this week and I am deeply saddened and shocked.

The problem always comes up, what do you say?  There are no words that will make any of it better.  The best we can do is to reflect and look at what we learned from that person and what we can celebrate about them.

I learned a lot from my friend.  She taught me about being a friend, about support, about giving.  Her short life taught me that it’s not about how long you live, it’s about how you live.  Powerful stuff.

In addition, I can celebrate what she left behind for me.  She loved angels and the thought of having heavenly watchdogs and messengers.  She sent me a lot of them, coins with angels, keychain fobs of angels, etc.  Now she is with those same angels…and I hope she will continue to show me their power and protection.  I hope she will continue to share a more intimate knowledge of the power of the creator…she did that in this life, I hope it will go on.

I know she left behind a grieving mother and my hope is that her mother can find peace in the knowledge that her daughter made a difference in the lives of others and she brought light where there was darkness.  I will pray for her mother and hope she finds peace.

I look forward to seeing AM again and to the laughs, and most importantly, to the warmth of her heart.  With a tear I say farewell to my friend, thank you more than you can know.

Excellence … Thanks Martin.

It’s MLK day and what better time to celebrate great leadership …and… deliver a great message about how to be excellent.

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”   – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thanks Martin.  Thanks for changing the world.  Thanks for standing up for what you believed in and showing us what it means to lead.