Give Good Tidings, to change your world - Really a Flock of Magpies? Nope ...

Hello Everyone,

Happy New Year! I am hopeful that 2022 will be a wonderful year for you and your family. Believe it can be. Make it that way. Every little thing we do to help encourage others makes a difference. Every little thing we do to encourage and lift ourselves makes a difference. God gives us all a light inside us. One that can give us hope and possibility. Shine that light in your life and in others, and again, we can make a difference. To all of you, I am appreciative of you shining your light on me all these years.

Make it a great year, make it a year of encouragement.

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a year of encouragement

"The actions you take each day create the results of your life. And since every action you take has been preceded by a thought, what you focus on really does drive your reality." — Robin Sharma

 "I bring you good tidings." I heard that several times this holiday season. What does that mean, tidings? I looked it up. A flock of magpies is a tiding, and although we have a lot of them in Colorado, I don't believe it means that in this context. In this, it means good news.

It has been a challenging two years. With the negativity that seems to dominate the news and our natural thought process (I heard we have over 60,000 thoughts a day, and 80% of those are negative), it is no wonder we see so much not to be happy about in the world today.

I believe we have more good in our lives that we often overlook. Family, friends, jobs, awesome associates, places to live, transportation, food... my meaning is best said in this story I heard:

One day a man was getting his windshield washed at a filling station (yes, they used to do that). When the attendant finished, the man said, "That's a terrible job. Redo my windshield—it's as dirty as when you started!" So the attendant wiped it again. The man looked it over and said again, "That window hasn't changed a bit." The man's wife was sitting next to him in the car, fuming. She reached over, pulled off his glasses, wiped them, and gave them back to him. The attendant had been doing his job correctly; the man himself was the problem all along.

The glasses (mindset) you're looking through determines what you see and how you see it.

You might be thinking, this is the first of the year, shouldn't you be talking about what goals and dreams we want to achieve? For sure! In my opinion, the right frame of mind helps as much as anything in achieving what you want to.

If we have that negative lens on, we can be comfortable not taking action on our goals because we feel it won't do any good. So why do it?

"The world tries to pull our hearts in every direction. Choose your own thoughts, emotions, words, and actions." — Anonymous

If we focus on what is good, what we are grateful for and what is possible, we begin to see more positively... even when the lens is dirty. We start to get the mindset that we can make a difference.

One of my favorite strategies I have learned over the last few years is the concept of living in the gain, not the gap (from Dan Sullivan). Our tendency is to focus on the gap. Where we are, in relation to where we want to be. It seems like a long way, like a lot of work, which often leads us to give up or not start on something.

But when we look at the gain—where we are, in relation to where we started—we see we have actually accomplished more than we think we have. We have learned a lot, grown a lot, experienced a lot. We actually have people that love us, reasons to keep persevering and much to be grateful for. These things can help us achieve the next goal.

I am reading a book, "Life is Messy," by Matthew Kelly. He discusses how there is so much dehumanization going on in the world. To create more good out there, he suggests we focus on rehumanization, helping each person (including ourselves) develop a healthy sense of self, and reprioritizing people above all else.

"You're always making people feel something." — Ed Mylett

In my opinion, building more positivity in ourselves and those around us starts with us. It then spreads because we often are what we see. So my motto this year is: Make it a Year of Encouragement. Encourage yourself, encourage others, spread goodness. We all want it, we all need it. Ask for it, give it, live it.

If you do it with heart, it will set you apart. You'll knock your goals off the chart. But if you act with care, you will be rare, and it can tip the balance between hope and despair. (See what I did there!?)

We can make a positive difference in the world if we do this together. Just look at where we are versus where we started. We all took little steps to build our organizations, we started making a difference in our communities. Then we came together, and we are making a difference in the industry all across the country.

The New Year is filled with possibilities and new beginnings. Focus on those, believe they can happen, and make a difference. Be intentional in encouraging yourself and spreading good tidings to others, which I believe will bring more good tidings to you.