My motto for the last year or so has been
Be Yourself, Be Great, Be
Happy.
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The photo is Guest Poster Paul L living his motto (Photo by Jim McCoy).
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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.
