An Act of Kindness

What is Kindness? Do you practice Kindness in your everyday life?  In the dictionary the meaning of Kindness is is the act or the state of being kind - —i.e. marked by goodness and charitable behaviour.

The best portion of a good man's life - his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love. ~William Wordsworth

Something happen this week "an act of kindness" that brings me to share with you the importance for us to have kindness in our daily life.

A few days ago, there was a knock at my door. My dogs started barking. My kids questioned who was at the door. Like normal, I looked out the crack of the window to see who it was...I saw a small blue car at the entrance of my driveway and saw a man at the door. With my kids behind me and my dogs still barking, I opened the door and say "Yes, can I help you?". The gentlemen handed me a small bag, as it was placed in my hands it felt soft ( I couldn't imagine what was inside of it ) the gentlemen (which I don't know his name but had seen the car past by my home many times) said this is for the boy (my 13 yr old son) that is always shooting the hoops. I was surprised and as a surprised person wondering what is this man giving me for my son? As a mother a red light goes off. I said "My son, Jr"? I said "Thank You" (not knowing what was inside) and closed the door in front of me. I turned and handed the bag to my son. When he opened it the bag there was a new basketball net inside. My son's basketball hoop had been missing the net. And we hadn't gotten around to get a new one. If you have a family and your life is sometimes alittle busy, little things like that don't take priority.  My husband soon came into the kitchen asking what had happened? I told him the story and everyone in our home was amazed at the fact that his man whom we still don't know his name was KIND enough to buy my son this net for NO REASON at all.

An act of KINDNESS is the title of this post and the reason I share this story is because an act so small and simple goes to show that there are still people out there that have KINDNESS in their hearts.

I come from the Chicago, a big city. The homes are close to one another, you know who lives next to you most of the time by name. I miss that. As a child growing up on Barry St, I still remember my neighbors. I remain friends with some of them too. So if it would have happen up north "a neighbor giving my son a net" well you'd be surprised and say how kind but you'd be that is my neighbor - I know them - they know us.

Well in the south, in Florida. Homes are not close to each other. Your lucky if you have a neighbor. You see cars go up and down the street. There may be some that wave "HI" and that is as "friendly" as you get here.

So this act was very thoughtful and desires to be shared because I don't know who this person is, and yes, I have seen the car go by and have remembered waving "HI" but that's about it.

I truly hope God blesses this person and his family. I get a warm feeling that if everyone shared a tiny little act of KINDNESS daily, we'd be a much happier WORLD.

So the next time you notice something and say to yourself - I could fulfilled that act of KINDNESS - go ahead and DO IT! You'll feel GREAT about it and the person(s) you touch will too!!

God Bless and remember an act of KINDNESS can and will CHANGE YOUR LIFE it did my family!!



Words that will "Change Your Life" - Faith - Believe - Positive Thinking - Affirmations

So I've talked about motivation, being determine to change your life. There are some important words I want to share with you, if you apply these words to your everyday life - I know you will be able to

 Change Your Life

for the better.  

Faith      Believe      Positive Thinking        Affirmations

I want to share a personal story about the power of having faith and believing in your positive thinking along with adding affirmations to it all to reach your goals and change your life.

If you don't know me, I love fitness! I became passionate about helping others through my own struggles. So I decided to become a personal trainer and teach group fitness classes. Being a fitness coach wasn't enough for me, I wanted to do more.

Here is the story. We all know the job market is struggling right now. People are losing jobs. Back in November, I was praying, hoping, and looking for a job in a fitness center. I haven't finished my certification to train but I wanted to put my foot in the door. 

I remember like it was today, I was looking at the Internet and I was at the website of the fitness center in my town that I wanted to work at, I said to myself it doesn't hurt to send them an email and introduce yourself.  I did just that.....I remember I wrote a short message ( I didn't know who was going to get that message because it was a contact us type of form ) but in this message I wrote I had several years of customer services experience and that I was studying to become a personal trainer, that I taught a group fitness class - basically I reached out and say I was available to start at any position that they might have.

To my surprise (I didn't know) I got a reply the next day that they were hiring a weekend assistant manager...I was so happy.  Of course they wanted to interview me.

Well, this was Friday, when I got the reply...to make a long story short...I went by the fitness center on Monday, had a interview with the billing manager. I went to my second interview on Wednesday, with the night manager. About 30 minutes later, I got the call that I got the job. GREAT, right...Well let me tell you things that happen before all this went down.

Taking it back to early in 2010, when everyone was losing their jobs. I know because I had lost my job in 2008, when everything started going down hill.

I would pray and ask God to help me land a job in a fitness center. I'd pray but I wasn't putting my thoughts into action having "faith" or "believing" that positive things to happen in my life. Why? Because sometimes we listen to much to others whom offer negative advice, negative suggestions!

So what did I do? Early that year...I started to "self-help" my  thoughts! I have learn that you have to believe that positive things will happen in your life. Remove all that negative junk from your thoughts, from your mouth. Remember I've said "Words Have Power", what are you speaking? Speak blessings into your life. Speak good things all the time. I know this world can be tough. Believe me I know!! But I started having a bigger type of faith.   Let's face it, I believe in Christ. The King of Kings, I am His child! Why wouldn't good things happen to me!

Well as I stated, I stopped listening to negative words...replace my thought with POSITIVE Thoughts! I kept believing! Don't let anyone put you down. Put your dreams down. Put your goals down! Keep you from believing that good things will come to you.  I don't want to sound like I'm preaching but I've learned so much from helping myself learn that we have to change our mindset! 

I would recommend that if you are having trouble with believing or having positive thoughts...do alittle self-help audio listening. My iPod is full of positive selp-help audio. I love it!

Remember the bible says "Ask & You shall receive! God wants to pour His blessings down to us BUT we have to Believe!!

Well, like I said...I got the job in less than a week...during this time I had people in my life offering negative vibes. But I refuse to listen and let that take my mind off my Positive Thinking!!

" No problem can ever be bigger than me, as I have my biggest GOD with me to solve that."

What is Motivation? How to Motivate Yourself & Change Your Life!

When you want to "change" anything in "your life" there needs to be motivation to do just that, you have to be motivate to do whatever it is your going to reach for.....sometimes things don't change because we lack "motivation"...I wanted to share with you this awesome article about motivation and how to motivate yourself. Start the "Change" in "Your Life" today by improving your motivaiton!

Motivation is a desire to achieve a goal, combined with the energy to work towards that goal.

Read on on how to Self-Motivate: How to Motivate Yourself!

People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.
Andrew Carnegie

If you want to excel in life, self motivation is essential. You must know how to motivate yourself. You must be able to keep your spirit high no matter how discouraging a situation is. That’s the only way to get the power you need to overcome difficulties. Those who are discouraged in difficult times are certain to lose even before the battle is over.
The question is: how do you motivate yourself? Here are several tips I’ve found to be effective to build self motivation:

1. Have a cause
I can’t think of a more powerful source of motivation than a cause you care about. Such cause can inspire you to give your best even in the face of difficulties. It can make you do the seemingly impossible things.
While other causes could inspire you temporarily, a cause that matters to you can inspire you indefinitely. It’s a spring of motivation that will never dry. Whenever you think that you run out of motivation,  you can always come to your cause to get a fresh dose of motivation.

2. Have a dream. A big dream.

Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.
Karen Ravn

Your cause is a powerful source of motivation but it’s still abstract in nature. You need to make it concrete in the form of a dream. Imagine how the world will be in the future. Imagine how people will live and work.
Having a dream is important because it’s difficult to be motivated if you don’t have anything to shoot for. Just think about people who play basketball. Will they be motivated to play if there is no basket to aim at? I don’t think so. They need a goal. You need a goal. That’s what your dream is for.
But just having a dream is insufficient. Your dream must be big enough to inspire you. It must be realistic but challenging. It must stretch your ability beyond your comfort zone.

3. Be hungry

Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way.
Les Brown

To be truly motivated, you need to have hunger and not just desire. Having mere desire won’t take you through difficult times since you don’t want things badly enough. In many cases, hunger makes the difference between the best performers and the mediocre ones.
How can you have hunger? Your cause and your dream play a big role here. If you have a cause you care about and a big dream related to it, you should have the hunger inside of you. If you think that you are losing hunger, all you need to do is to connect again to your cause and dream. Let them inspire you and bring the hunger back.

4. Run your own race

I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.
Mikhail Baryshnikov

Comparing yourself with others is an effective way to demotivate yourself. Even if you start with enthusiasm, you will soon lose your energy when you compare yourself with others.
Don’t let that happen to you. You have your own race so how other people perform is irrelevant. Comparing yourself with others is like comparing the performance of a swimmer with a runner using the same time standard. They are different so how can you compare one with the other?
The only competitor you have is yourself. The only one you need to beat is you. Have you become the best you can be?

5. Take one more step

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Winston Churchill

When you meet obstacles along the way, there could be the tendency to quit. You may think that it’s too difficult to move on. You may think that your dream is impossible to achieve. But this is where you can see the difference between winners and losers. Though both of them face the same difficulties, there is one thing that makes the winners different: the courage to continue.
In difficult situations, just focus on taking one more step forward. Don’t think about how to complete the race. Don’t think about how many more obstacles are waiting for you. Just focus on taking the next step.

6. Let go of the past

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Believe it or not, one of the best demotivators is your past. Your past can drag you down before you realize it. Your past can give you a heavy burden on your shoulders.

The good news is it’s a burden you don’t have to carry. Take it off your shoulder and leave it. You might make mistakes in the past. You might disappoint others with what you did. But it’s over. It’s already in the past and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Today is a new day and you have the chance to start again. No matter how bad your past might be, you still have a bright future ahead waiting for you. Just don’t let the burden of the past stop you.
***
Apply these tips and motivate yourself. Don’t settle for mediocrity. Let your self motivation take you to excellence.

This article is part of October 2008 theme: Winning Attitude

Resourses: http://www.lifeoptimizer.org/