Your Power of Influence
Quote of the Week
“At the core of you being, there is love. Love is your spiritual identity.
Every experience, every encounter, every lesson learned is life’s way of training you to be a greater expression of love. The only way you can express love is to stand in your truth of you identity. Love is a force…
Until today, you may have believed that the people in your life could not handle the truth you know and feel.
Just for today, be devoted to loving and trusting people enough to share with them the truth about you.
Express what you know in a loving way.
Share what you know from a place of love and concern.
Be who you honestly are, as a demonstration of your understanding that love harmonises all things, all people.”
– Iyanla Vanzant, Until Today!
Your Power of Influence
Every day I wake with the conscious intention to add value to my own and other peoples’ lives, to make a positive difference. Sometimes I get it right, others not so right.
Yet, each day I look at how I can make a difference and over the years it has become integrated within everything I do, every part of my day just by being me.
Many of us wander around without being aware of the value we add to the lives around us.
Do You Know Your Value?
My years in Corporate showed me that how people valued themselves reflected in their pay packet. So there is a very real side to the benefits of knowing your value. And it is reflected in income, your superannuation, your bank balance – our ability to support ourselves and keep the economy thriving are vitally important.
I am asking you to go deeper.
Are you aware of the value you add to your world?
Have you ever stopped to think of the value you add to the people around you…sure you know the people around you who love you have to love you…the kids, your parents.
Have you really stopped to think about how much value you are adding to their lives? The moments in time…the serious, the sad, the funny, the unplanned that become deep moments of meaning to those around you simply for being you and BEing Present.
Most people forget their power of Influence, that what they say and how they say it can have a profound affect on those around them.
Often in our rush to be somewhere, to learn something, to step up, we lose touch with our desired outcome as a part of a BIG picture….
The choices we make, the way we speak ( to ourselves and others) , how we behave as a reflection of our true selves and values. Being our authentic self. This is the ultimate value we can add to those lives we touch.
So, that’s your homework for the next week. Notice the value You have on those you come in contact with. Remember your power of influence. And Celebrate being You.
A 5 Minute Story
Can you recall who you were as a child?
Recently as a part of the seasonal “Cleanse the Clutter” I found some long forgotten thankyou letters from aged great aunts, friends and friends of the family. They were thanking me for letters, notes or drawings I had posted them to brighten their day.
I picked up a photo of my 5th grade self all polished and neat in school uniform. She reminded me that was the year, after visiting my grandmother in hospital after an operation with a patch over her eye, I very enthusiastically started a toy collection and book drive at my school for the children at Royal North Shore Hospital. I thought they must be very bored and sad, alone in hospital with nothing to do. I do remember delivering a huge amount of gifts collected from the kids at my school to the very bemused matron of the children’s ward with my parents.
Then later sitting at the bottom of the garden at home chatting away with the fairies that lived there, sharing the learning.
A million wonderous memories made possible by patient parents and siblings.
So I looked deeply into the eyes of these photos of my younger selves and asked…. why?
To make other’s lives easier
To change the way they were thinking about their day to happier
To help them remember they are important.
So when I read the story below I felt goosebumps…..
A BIG Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou to Katie and Janet who shared these with me on Facebook, so I could share them with you.
Read on and enJOY!
October 14 at 4:35am
“I had one friend, but he went to the next grade. To make a friend, you have to talk to them which can be very hard. Most of the time, when I try to talk to them, I fail. Everyone thinks I’m a geek. I want to be a lawyer when I grow up. But just a defense lawyer. Because I’m much better at defending people than I am at accusing people. But I’d only want to defend kind people. You can tell if someone is kind by their aura. Plus, I’m smart. I know so many math facts. Ask me any math fact. Do you want a strategy for multiplying double digit numbers? If you want, I can teach you a strategy for multiplying double digit numbers.”
“Luis is different. He’s got two moms. He’s an old soul. We live in the projects, and he doesn’t know who Michael Jordan is, or anything about rap music. He dresses himself in the morning. He chooses a button down and slacks, and sits in the kitchen with his legs crossed and reads the newspaper. But he’s still got the heart of a child. Yesterday he had $5 to buy himself a Halloween costume, and he saw a boy he knew while he was walking to the store, and he chose to buy him a costume instead. I always tell him: ‘You’re different, Luis. And that’s OK.’ When he wants to play, I walk him all the way down to Central Park, because I don’t really want him to change.”
So, can you recall who you were as a child?
What did you care about most?
What did you LOVE doing?
Where were your happiest moments?
What did you loathe doing? How did you get that stuff done?
What was ‘bad/ wrong” and ‘ good/ the right thing’ for you?
What did you argue about?
Or did you avoid confrontation? If so, what did you do with that anger?
What did you see so clearly that others saw differently?
What did you do differently to others? Did you notice?
Have You changed? How much of this are you doing now?
Within the forgotten memories, joys, habits and passions of your childhood are the seeds to your JOY, passions and love NOW.
Get curious.
And remember to be kind. And true to You.
All my best always,
Deb
The Power of Influence…Maya Angelou
“Maya Angelou was one of the most amazing women I’ve ever met. Her poem, “Phenomenal Woman,” which we published in Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul, is one of the most empowering and validating poems I’ve ever read to date.
I was fortunate enough to meet her in California at a recording studio when I was recording stories with Mark Victor Hansen for a Chicken Soup for the Soul audio book.
Maya was in the recording booth next to me, recording some of her poetry.
We both happened to take a break to grab some water and stretch our legs at the same time, and that’s when I ran into her and had the fortune to meet one of the world’s living legends. I only met her this one time, but this short meeting left an indelible impact on me. We spoke for about 15 minutes, and I just remember feeling as if I was truly in the presence of one of the great beings of our time. Her unbridled energy and love for life were infectious, and her level of consciousness, elegance, and graciousness were truly profound.
I also remember thinking she was quite the renaissance woman, as she told me she was off to host a barbeque for 30 friends after she was done recording.
I just wanted to take a moment to honor and reflect on this amazing woman, poet, author, social activist, and inspiring leader who was a true force of nature. The world will miss her very much. I know I will.” – Jack Canfield