Be Yourself, Be Great, and Be Happy. Guest Post by Paul Ledebur

My motto for the last year or so has been 

Be Yourself, Be Great, Be Happy. 

The photo is Guest Poster Paul L living his motto (Photo by Jim McCoy).

This phrase is instantly inspirational to some but I thought I would explain what is really behind these words. Of course, the meaning will differ from one person to the next and that is fine by me. Everyone must do what they need to do to get through life and there are as many paths as there are people on this earth. This brings me to the first part of the motto.

Be Yourself. Don’t try and be anyone but who you were meant to be. Do things that make you comfortable and in a manner in which you can manage them. Find the values that will guide and best represent you and then live by them to the best of your ability. I have found that my values revolve around being good to others. Three values that instantly come to mind are Honesty, Loyalty and Compassion. I pride myself in these values and do my very best to exhibit them as often as I can. When I reflect on a situation, I ask myself, Was I honest with others and myself? If there is another person involved I also ask, Does that person know I have their back and can count on me?

Finally I ask, Did I show others that I care about them and exhibit understanding of their situation? These to me are essential things that I try to bring to every relationship that I make and have. An easy way to find your values is to literally Google search “personal values”. Write down 20, 30 or more that you like and then each day look at this list and delete one or two until there are only 3-5 left. These are the things that have stuck with you and mean something. Trust your gut, these are your values.

Be Great. When you are living by the values you have chosen, it is important to live by them to the absolute BEST of your ability. Living by your values will help guide your personal and professional life. It may mean a change in jobs; it may mean a change in friends. That is ok. A shake up is usually first on the path to greatness. Recognizing the values that are important to you will unleash a passion that will feed you energy and resilience. As the passion grows within, so does the willpower to put in the necessary work to succeed. Greatness increases with each success and yes, with each failure. Celebrate the successes, learn from the failure and enjoy the ride along the way. There is no limit to the greatness that can be achieved when values, passion and energy are aligned. 

Be Happy. This is probably the part that you have the most control over. There are obstacles for each point that I have made. However, Happiness is a state of mind. That state of mind can be controlled with practice. Material things are not the key to happiness. A lot of people say those words but they don’t truly believe it. I have had the opportunity to travel much of this world and have seen the richest and poorest of regions. I can tell you that I have seen happiness in people who don’t have much more than the shirt on their back and sadness in people who have everything anyone could want. If you follow the first two pieces of my motto, Be Yourself and Be Great, Being Happy is a very natural progression that can happen almost by accident. Happiness is created when you are living the life that you are meant to live and achieving greatness along the way.

Being Yourself and Being Great creates the proper environment for Happiness to grow and flourish within you. The power to look at the worst situation and find the silver lining is in all of us. Everyone has hardships, setbacks and lousy days. Your attitude and state of mind, when dealing with a bad situation, is entirely up to you. Being part of the problem or playing the part of the victim will achieve a feeling of less happiness then when you are the part of the solution. Deciding that a bad situation is not going to be the end of you is a step in the right direction. Harder said than done sometimes, but you CAN do it.

Since coming up with the motto and trying to live by it, some wonderful things have happened to me and in my life in general. Not saying that there haven’t been hard times too, however, these hard times are easier to deal with. Bad situations roll off my back easier and don’t affect me as deeply or slow me down as much as they once did. 

As a Life Coach I will teach you the skills to live by my motto “Be Yourself, Be Great, Be Happy.” I will also help to find your very own motto, if that is what you want. 

Contact me for one-on-one or group sessions. 

Paulledebur@yahoo.com