|
Today's
quotation:
The
finest gift you can give anyone is encouragement. Yet, almost no
one gets
the encouragement they need to grow to their full potential. If
everyone
received the encouragement they need to grow, the genius in most
everyone
would blossom and the world would produce abundance beyond the
wildest dreams. We would have more than one Einstein, Edison,
Schweitzer,
Mother Theresa, Dr. Salk and other great minds in a century.
Sidney
Madwed
|
|
Today's
Meditation:
I want
to be an encourager, not a discourager. The
difference between these two words is immense, and
choosing one over the other can be one of the most
important decisions of our lifetimes. In my
experience, I've seen a huge number of positive effects of
encouraging other human beings, while I can recall hardly
any positive effects that have come from
discouragement. When I encourage my students, they
learn and grow and develop very well. The teachers I
know who discourage their students-- consciously or
unconsciously-- do some pretty severe damage to the psyches
of the children in their care.
Encouragement
is so easy to give, and it usually costs nothing at
all. It requires that we're mindful of things that
deserve our encouragement, and of the vulnerability and
need for encouragement of the other people in our
lives. Co-workers, friends, family members-- even
bosses or teachers-- can use an encouraging word now and
then to help them deal with their daily lives and keep on
keeping on.
When
I teach, I usually try to make sure that I share some
encouragement with all of my students in any given
month. It's very hard to do sometimes because it's
hard to keep track of, but it's important, both to me and
to them. Some of them seem not to care whether I
encourage them or not, but I don't encourage in order to
get a certain reaction-- I can only give what I have to
give and let it do its work on its own, without any
expectations on my part. The most important thing is
that when I encourage, students feel better in my classes,
and thus they're willing and able to learn more.
When I discourage, they don't even want to be there
because they never know when I'll discourage them even more.
We
all have many opportunities to encourage others, and as
long as our encouragement is justified (very important)
and sincere (also very important), we can go about
spreading positivity and helping people to build their own
self-esteem. When I encourage, people are more
willing to share with me in the future, which is a huge
benefit for me. Whether or not to encourage others
is a choice that we make every day of our lives, and this
choice is one that allows us to contribute to the positive
energy in the world, or to cause more negative
energy. Personally, I'd rather go for the positive.
|
