What is possible for you?
Maybe I should ask, what do you THINK is possible for you?
I’ve been thinking about how fast we give up before we’ve given ourselves a chance to succeed to completion.
I started The Encouragement Project quite a while ago and life got in the way.
Isn’t that the way life goes? We start something, and then bam, something else demands our attention and when we get back to thinking about it, it seems like we have lost something – momentum, drive – whatever.
It’s easy to get discouraged too. There are the naysayers who tell you that you don’t have anything, that it isn’t possible to make it work, there isn’t an audience for what you’ve got. That alone, is enough to discourage anyone!
This is the time to breathe deeply and remind yourself of all the reasons you started. Remind yourself of why you thought it was important.
This week I met with an old friend. I asked him to help me brainstorm on my possibilities for this project moving forward. He told me it had no punch, it didn’t move him. I went away a little discouraged – but only for a few minutes because even though it does need more work – all projects do- I know in my heart that this is a project that is meant to be brought into the world. This idea has nagged me to death and shown me its power and since it uses my specific gifts, I would be crazy to give up now.
A day later, I was in a discussion with a group of people who were teasing apart a difficult topic. One of them (who has done his own experiments with encouraging others) started sending his friends loving, personal messages when they were going through difficult times. One of his great friends sent him a message back of how much his letter meant and how much he appreciated it. I took that as confirmation that I am on the right track. We must look for the confirmations.
We think other people are made of stronger stuff. We look at the monuments and statues of famous people and never think that we could do what they did or measure up to what they accomplished.
Every single one of us has gifts that we so often discount. What if we start to believe that we can use these gifts in such a way that we astonish ourselves and others.
Walt Disney said: “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” and Audrey Hepburn: “The word impossible is made up of two other words: I’m Possible.