photo credit: Craig Sunter via photopin cc
I remember reading in a John Maxwell book about a experiment with people standing in a bucket of ice water. It was used to measure people’s capacity to endure pain. People were tested to see how long they could endure standing in a bucket of ice water. After the results were recorded, they tested more people, but this time while they were standing in bucket of ice water they had someone standing beside them encouraging them and cheering them on. When all the results came in, it was discovered that the people who had someone encouraging them were able to endure the pain twice as long as those who had no encouragement!
What a difference a little encouragement can make! If encouragement enabled the participants to endure twice as long as those with no encouragement, imagine what a little encouragement can do in your life and those around you!
Right now, wherever you are, you have the power to enable somebody to overcome twice as much as they could on their own, to achieve twice as much as they could on their own, to live twice the life! And all it takes is a small dose of some sincere encouragement.
As for me, I can’t say encouragement has enabled me to live twice the life.. it’s honestly more like ten times the life! I remember so vividly when a phone call came in to encourage me at just the right time, I’ve treasured cards & letters that encouraged me through a tough time, there were a few voicemails that I refused to erase because they encouraged me to keep on keeping on! Encouragement has deeply molded my life and caused me to overcome tremendous trials that I never thought would end. I think maybe it’s because of how much encouragement has meant to me, that I really love to encourage others to believe that they can overcome whatever they may be facing, that they can live their Good Life Now!
How about you? Can you remember a time when encouragement pushed you through to a greater place? If so, use that memory as fuel to encourage those around you and watch someone else breakthrough to a greater place! There is absolutely no shortage of people who could use some genuine encouragement, so go ahead and be an encourager, change someone’s life today!
Are you in need of encouragement? If so here are two things you can do right now to get you what you need:
1) Encourage some else!
As hard as it may sound, it is almost an immediate remedy! “Give and it shall be given back to you”. If you give it, you’ll get it! There is always someone in a bigger mess than you are, if you would take your eyes off of your situation for just a moment and encourage someone else, you may find that you situation isn’t as bad as you thought. Some of my greatest “aha moments” have come to me when I’ve forced myself to encourage others even when I just finished wiping my own tears from facing my own struggles.
2) Grab a Mirror!
Dang it! If all else fails, look into a mirror and encourage yourself! For real, lol! Look yourself in the eyes and tell yourself why your gonna make it, why you’ve got what it takes, and why the best is yet to come! Start recalling all the other times that you’ve made it through, and do what you’ve got to do to be encouraged! Talk to yourself..all the cool people do it! Lol! If you don’t believe me check out this link to a previous post http://yourgoodlifenow.com/2013/03/19/pancakes-the-power-of-words/
Encourage & Stay Encouraged!
Cheers to Your Good Life!
