MAWMonday Motivators 10/25/2015

by: Dr. Michael A. Wright In Blog, Coaching DiaryTagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

#MondayMotivation
fallShineThis week, as the season begins to change and the challenge of the Winter months looms, I want to encourage you toward productivity. The instinct is to hibernate–to hide away from the challenges, the criticism, the hurdles, and the weather. I encourage you to find your shine on the inside. I further challenge you to focus that light to shine enveloping you and others. It will take a mature perspective. It will require a extraordinary commitment. But, the result is a Spring of rebirth, thawing, warmth, and revelation.

Bonus Tweet

1. Be Positive Even in the Worst Times
Yes. This is the most difficult of the insisted requirements of life, but your positivity in the worst times, as the tweet suggests, makes others positive. The others are people AND other times. People is easy to understand. Positive thoughts and optimism, encouragement, and patience influences other people to look on the bright side. It helps others to integrate reason with emotion and make choices with competence and passion as opposed to just raw feelings. Perseverance even while in your struggle, communicates strength that other people can lean on. And it also makes other times more positive.

Positive thoughts and optimism allow you to maintain preparation and activity with a sense of a certain future. You build according to a plan constructed with integrated competence and passion. This offers a greater chance of success. Perseverance while in your struggle keeps that productivity going at your lowest point of energy. This accomplishes some tasks leaving less to complete as you inevitably reclaim the energy lost in struggle. Be positive. Make others positive.

2. Wear Confidence Like Makeup
My first thought was, “No. You need to be authentic.” But, on second thought, this quote may be applied (pun) to competence. Applying makeup is a skill when the goal is to enhance your best features. It helps to have some natural beauty–some features to enhance. Expert makeup application does not change who you are underneath. It allows you to overcome the ravages of lighting, angles, and faulty perception in order to present your best vision of self. In the same way, confidence is not the authentic you, but the enhancement of that genuineness. You understand what you do well. You develop in your areas of weakness. You engage without fear knowing that you will either win or learn. Confidence, like makeup, allows you to explain misunderstandings, deflect negative energy, and clarify your vision communicating a level of certainty.

3. Grow
The choice is yours. And, it is a choice. Most people think that happiness is the it. But, no. Perception is the it. Perception is a choice. I understand that it is not working in your favor. The perception of others seems intent on determining that your contribution is not worthy of applause. What you have identified is the truth that your choice has two components. First, realize that their perception is of little consequence. It does not tell you what YOU should do next. It only reflects their understanding, their agenda, and often their level of insight.

But oh the second component. Second, realize that your perception can be of harm–setting you up to be the victim, mistreated, and under appreciated–or your perception can be of growth–to have seen the world for what it is and others for who they are, further clarifying your place within it and among them. Let your perception be of growth. Decide that convincing them is not the most sustainable use of energy. Grow in competence, articulation, confidence, and humility. Produce beyond your own expectations because your growth requires as much.

4. Make the Most of Yourself
I work with a lot of clients who are uncertain about their purpose in life. I share this tweet with the knowledge of your purpose. Your purpose has two steps. First, find out who you are. Second, make the most of who you are. It may seem difficult to identify, but you have always known it. The challenge is that life is built to confuse, frustrate, and obscure that truth. Even though the truth is within you, life attempts to convince you over time that the truth resides somewhere externally. Life conspires to require you to check with an external authority for approval. You don’t have to check for approval. You only need some guidance to learn how to trust yourself. The next step is to build from your truth into a life of purpose and productivity. No matter what you begin with, no matter what your passion and interests, they can be used in the service of your purpose. And, as a function of your production, your purpose can pay the bills. Get started today. Make the most of yourself.

5. Shine, Baby!
Because life comes with interactions, you have been evaluated by someone. It could have been a teacher, a supervisor, a parent, a peer, or the teller at the bank. Most of us high achievers forget easily the accolades, pats on the back, and encouragement we have received. We forget that we chose this path. We forget that we have achieved beyond our wildest dreams. We are busy grinding and challenging ourselves to higher heights.

We remember the slights, the criticism, the disappointments, the write-ups, the questions about us. I want to remind you with the sharing of this tweet that none of those define you! Keep doing YOU. They may never catch up, but they will one day recognize how brilliant you have always been. They will realize how you shined even before it was popular to do so. They may not want to admit that they benefited from the sun you provide, but you don’t shine for them. You shine because you are light–active, brilliant, illuminating, cleansing, true. They through shade. That’s what they do because they misinterpret your warmth as heat. They can’t stand the heat.

Dr. Michael A. Wright received his Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work degree from the University of South Carolina - Columbia. Since 1997, Wright has led MAWMedia Group, LLC, a firm helping individuals and organizations tell stories and translate ideas into capital.