Do you ever feel like it has all been said already? I mean, how many times can we really talk about hope and encouragement, a positive attitude, kindness, charity, goodness, love, forgiveness, commitment, endurance, thoughtfulness, goals, dreams, and actions? How many reminders do we need to say thank you, please, or I love you?
The question really isn’t how many times can we really talk about these things, the question is how often should we talk about them? And the answer is constantly, or at least more often than we currently do. It has been said that repetition is the mother or father of all learning. The more often we can repeat these words, affirm others with these feelings, and apply them in our own lives, the more they become habit and part of our values and core belief system. Imagine that outcome.
Each week as I write this column, I think about it. Each time I speak to a group or class, I think about it too. I think about the fact that ever since I was introduced to these concepts myself, they have literally changed my life. And although I write about them and speak about them so often, it never gets old or tired for me, because I know that even though I have shared this message and these winning words so many times before, there is someone out there right now in our community who needs to hear it again, or maybe hear them for the very first time. And maybe they need to hear those words from you too.
Many of you have shared your own stories, which by the way I appreciate so very much, and you have shared parts of your own life story where you were having a bad day, bad week, or a few bad months. And then you decided for whatever reason to pick up the paper on a given day or find the column online, and how the nudge and reminder that we can choose our outlook and actions completely turned around your attitude.
And not just this column, but somehow coming across a positive message from someone, a motivational blog or podcast, a loving note, or witnessing an act of kindness, and how seeing or hearing those positive affirmations and words of encouragement made a huge difference in your day, week, month or life.
“The doors of hope swing widest on the hinges of encouragement,” Zig Ziglar said.
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We can never talk about hope, faith, love, kindness, gentleness, commitment, trust, a positive attitude, forgiveness, goals, dreams, or success enough. We should never stop filling the ears of our children, our spouses, our family, and our friends with reminders about how important and life-changing these words and actions can be if we can buy into them and internalize them. And we can never fill our own minds and our own hearts and fuel our own conviction enough when it comes to these as well.
The good news is that you get to choose, you get to make the decisions, and you can determine what you want to put into practice and what values you will choose to live by. You can even choose to stop reading this column if you truly believe that there is nothing more to say when it seems like it has all been said before. But before you make that choice, I hope you will also remember that common sense is not always common practice and that repetition is the mother and father of all learning.
So how about you? Have you heard it all before? Or can you live with a few more reminders about just how important our outlook is and how our outlook and actions can impact others, improving our own lives at the same time? I would love to hear your story at gotonorton@gmail.com and when we can find our words, values, and actions to live by, it really will be a better than good week.
Michael Norton is the President of the Zig Ziglar Corporate Training Solutions Team, a strategic consultant, business and personal coach and motivational speaker. He writes a weekly motivational column for the Vail Daily.
