Use All Your Strength

If you found a Starbucks cup 100 feet in the ground could I convince you that it had happened naturally? Could I explain to you that a combination of time, pressure, temperature and other natural factors over the millennia had occurred in such a way that the cup has the lid, the sleeve; heck even some coffee dregs in the bottom. And all formed naturally!

You and I both know that cup is man-made. You are going to think I am lit or stoned if I even seem serious in any suggestion otherwise.

Many of you know I give motivational presentations, typically team-oriented in their format. I assist for-profit companies primarily, with a smattering of association clients mixed in.

Yet there is demand from faith-based organizations and personal motivation is the goal with these clients. As well, a reminder that we each are uniquely and wonderfully made works with these folks. I don’t have to worry about people who see nothing as a miracle.

No, personal motivation is best expressed when you realize that everything is a miracle.  From how your eyes work to your immune system with its white blood cells hunting bacteria to the fact that every sky is beautiful. Every seascape or landscape can take your breath away. If the stars only shone once a century we would measure our lives by those occurrences.

If everything is a miracle, you too are a miracle. Act like it.

Strive. Do your best. Use all your strength. With your family for sure. With your friends for sure. At work? You bet. With folks you do not know and maybe do not like? Well, that is the hard part, isn’t it? You are probably ok until that point.

When you do your best, you serve as a marvelous example to others. Yes, you can impel others to improve by the example you set. Or not. You can be the reverse and have of course an effect too. Likely a bad one.

Parents who work hard, live below their means, thank God for their blessings, read good books around their children, watch appropriate television programs, truly check homework… these parents act as powerful role models. Their children then go out onto the world with powerful advantages and the likelihood of having similar impacts on others. Ripples.

The impact of ennobling behaviors at work such as a great work ethic and a fantastic attitude with an obvious-to-all desire to see your employer succeed in its mission……these are characteristics that make others better. This describes the good teammate (I cannot run from my corporate swim lane, which is helping teams embrace a shared purpose). The good teammate makes his colleagues better.

Use all your strength.

The Hubble telescope shows us red shifts, which allow us to date the universe at about 13.7 billion years. If that time was measured as a 24-hour day, man would appear at two seconds before midnight. By the way, of all the animals which have gone extinct over the years, 98% roamed the earth before man appeared.  Some-maybe you– believe we can change the weather or confuse a boy with a girl. Silliness.

You are uniquely and wonderfully made. Others can tell you otherwise. But the 46 chromosomal YOU will never happen again. Never to be repeated. As an aside, facts are stubborn things. XX chromosomes look different than XY under the microscope and are easy to distinguish. Just sayin.

The Why question still lingers however. Beyond the impact you can have on others, is that enough? I contend it does, but because of an as-yet unaddressed element.

How it makes us feel when we impact others. Our reality, our world in that brain of ours, is really everything in our experience. How we react and perceive and sense? That is the universe to us. That is reality. And in that head of ours, there seems an immutable need to matter. Everyone wants to matter. Everyone needs to matter. Most have a desire to be important or powerful or noticed or wealthy. And always loved. We need to love and we need to be loved. Both are important. Dogs are great not just due to their unconditional love, but the outlet to express love. That is why we pet the dog. For as much affection as dogs give their owners, owners generally express even more! Evidently, we instinctually have this need. Perhaps it is unique to homo sapiens. The need to love/be loved and the need to matter.

The unaddressed element is that when we strive and do our best and use all our strength, we feed that need. The need to matter. That is the reward.

That is our validation that we are uniquely and wonderfully made.

If you are more interested in corporate presentations, the below link captures the professional elements which sterilize I suppose the messaging. Cut and paste this link into your browser.

4 Keys to the Perfect Employee.

Use All Your Strength.