I was reflecting on a Toast Masters meeting I had attended the day before and thought about the contributions I had made and the awards that are given at the end of the meeting to signify who has done the best work that day in three areas; best speaker, best evaluator, and best table topics. I’ve won a few of these ribbons, but more importantly was the wonderful lesson that came to me by having used these tools as rewards to signify at least in your peers eyes, better work than others had given during the meeting. It made me ponder these questions:
See Yourself As You Should!
1) How hard did I work to do the best job I possibly could to win a ribbon or be an active participant?
2) Could I have done better?
3) Did I give 100% of everything I’ve got to be sure when I walk out that door, whether I won or not that I gave it my all?
It’s hard to answer the above questions in a favorable way to everything we do every day. It seems we just get into some kind of daily trance doing what we feel is necessary and needed, or perhaps if we are fortunate enough, doing what it is we really want to do. But think about this, how do we feel when we don’t answer the above questions in a favorable way? Not very good, right? Now think about how you feel when you’ve given your all to a task or an hour or your children or your life. You feel on top of the world, right?
How do we want to feel? The latter I’m sure. What does it take to achieve that level of winning in life? It takes being conscience, awake, aware, and in the present. It may take preparation too. The Boy Scout motto is “Be Prepared.” Are you prepared to accomplish everything in life that you want? You don’t always have the time or the inclination to be prepared. But is it worth not doing? I don’t think so.
So my recommendation to you is to live your life 100% of the time at your peak performance. I realize you can’t always do that, but the more you can the better you will become and the better you will feel about yourself. If you live your life like that, you will be happy about it and when you reflect on it, you will be proud. I also believe you will win more winners ribbons to complement your life.
Stay well, eat right, exercise regularly and Believe Yourself to Success Because Belief Equals Possibility.
Until next week,
Kevin
