S Emo

Who I Am Makes a Difference

"One Person can make a difference - and every person must try"

~ John F. Kennedy

"When two or more people come together in the spirit of harmony ...it's like putting LIGHTNING in a Bottle! The Teddy Stallard story and the Blue Ribbon story have the capacity to reach out to people to make a huge difference in all humanity. We must be the difference we want to make."

~ Mary Robinson Reynolds

1000 Islands, Gananoque, Canada

This October 25th, on "Make a Difference Day" I am incorporating the "Who I am Makes a Difference" Blue Ribbon ceremony into, what will hopefully become, an annual event in my community. We have too many people not realizing their full potentional. Not taking pride in who and what they are. We also have nighbours who are living their lives by example, getting no thanks or recognition for all that they do. We have young people feeling the need to turn to drugs for acceptance in a clique. And, simply too many people not being appreciated, thinking that what they do doesn't count.

Well it does count! To Me!! And hopefully, to many many others as well. I will admit I am doing this for selfish reasons . . . I want to re-energize my workplace culture--and inspire greater loyalty--using the power of compassion.

For those of you who are not familiar with these two stories, perhaps you saw the movie "Pay it Forward" ? I can't tell you how many times I have viewed this movie and each and every time it has moved me that little bit more until I now have this uncontrollable need to share it with everyone with whom I come in contact . You can view a clip of what inspired the Blue Ribbon campaign in the clip below

Blue Ribbon Movie

"Success is about experiencing the best of yourself. You have an innate ability to be whatever your heart pulls you toward. And yes, it takes integrity to acquire a sense of self which says, "Yes I can, yes I can, yes I can." It takes integrity to attain a high level of self-esteem which attracts success in all arenas of your life. So BE IT, HAVE IT, OWN IT - ENJOY IT!"

Think about joining me in some way, in your own community! October 25th is not too far away so think of what you can do this year in the short term and create some big plans for next year.

*** Please see SusanEmo/Leeds County/ Gananoque for the comments on this post.

"The tongue is like a razor; you can do good or cut someone with your words" ~Author unknown.

Contrary to the esteemed Dr Freud's theory that the primary human drives are to seek pleasure and to avoid pain, I believe what we want most is to find happiness and to find meaning or purpose. We want to know that we have lived fully and experienced joy with a deep feeling of contentment. Country singer, Tim McGraw's song comes to mind: "To Live Like You are Dying". Happiness is about the moments in our lives and the meaning or purpose is about our sense of connection.

In Anna Karenina, Tolstoy writes that "happy families are all alike; but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way". That seems to ring true when you speak with happy people - they each have certain things in common in terms of how they live their life. The secrets to happiness if you will. But simply knowing the secrets doesn't quite do it. We all know that we're supposed to eat well, exercise and not smoke, etc. But that doesn't keep us from our vices. The people who live these happy lives not only know the secrets but apply them daily! We have to decide that we're going to happy and that's that!

The First Secret: BE TRUE TO YOURSELF!
The greatest tragedy in life is to spend your whole life fishing only to discover that it was not fish you were after ~Henry David Thoreau

To live with intention, we need to continually and regularly ask three critical life questions:

•1. Am I following by heart and being true to myself?

•2. Is my life focused on the things that really matter to me?

•3. Am I being the person I want to be in the world or am I living someone else's expectatations?

The Second Secret: LEAVE NO REGRETS!!

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.
~Harriet Beecher Stowe

Regret is possibly the one thing we all fear the most; that we might look back on our lives and wish we had done things differently. To leave no regrets we must live with courage, moving toward what we want rather than away from what we fear. To leave no regrets we must overcome the inevitable disappointments that life hands us. We cannot ever be guaranteed of success but we can guarantee failure merely by choosing not to try at all! Always ask yourself: Fear or Faith?

Get into the habit of asking yourself at the end of each week:

•1. Did I act out of fear this week? How do I want to be more courageous next week?

•2. How am I responding to the setbacks in my life right now? Am I stepping forward or retreating?

•3. What might I do differently right now if I were living from the perspective of an old person on the porch looking back at my life?

The Third Secret: BECOME LOVE!

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion
~The Dalai Lama

Choose to see others with kindness. It is like a courtship. When you first get together with someone, you focus almost entirely on the things you like about the other person. But over time, people tend to focus more and more on the things which irritate them about the other person rather than what they like. If people would just turn that ratio around, most marriages and families would be so much better. When I hear of couples not getting along, on the brink of separation, I ask them to write down the Top Ten things they were attracted to in the beginning. I then ask them if they can add to the list, what else did they discover was wonderful about their partner? If they can focus on the good, the not-so-good usually fades away. Do good if you can, but always do no harm! Try to lift them up in some way. By what we say and do we can either make someone day or ruin it. The tongue is like a razor; you can do good or cut someone with your words.

More to think about each week:

•1. Did I make room for friends, family and relationships this week? Did I allow things to be more important than people?

•2. Was I kind and loving this week to the people closest to me? How can I improve upon this?

•3. Did I act as if each stranger was someone for whom l I could make a difference?

•4. Am I planting flowers or weeds in my self-conscious mind this week? Did I engage in negative self-talk or did I lift my spirit?

THE FOURTH SECRET: LIVE THE MOMENT!

Life lived for tomorrow will always be just a day away from being realized ~Leo Buscaglia

If life goes by quickly, then one of the secrets to happiness is to get more out of the time we have, to find a way that each moment and each day become great gifts. Don't focus on the past or the future but experience each moment with gratitude and purpose. We have power in each moment to contentment and happiness. Every day is a gift. ("To Live Like You were Dying" !) Happiness is all in your head. Here are some more things to think about:

•1. Did I really enjoy myself this week? Was I in the moment or did I just show up?

•2. Did I take every pleasure available to me or did I just run through the week?

•3. What am I grateful for this week? Did I find myself saying "I would be happy if only . . ."?

•4. Did I live in the present or did I let tomorrow or yesterday steal the day's happiness?

THE FIFTH SECRET: GIVE MORE THAN YOU TAKE!
An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ask what life expects of you not what you expect from life. Did you know that we have a great deal of control over what we give, but almost none over what we get. Each day we have the power to give without limit, to leave the world better in some way. Giving connects us to something larger. And in the act of doing so, happiness finds us!

The last questions I want you to think about each week:

•1. Did I make the world a better place in some small way?

•2. Did I remind myself this week that I am making a difference, even if I don't see it?

•3. Was I focused myself or my contribution to the world this week?

•4. Can I stop judging the life I've lived and get on with what life I may still have left to live?

Keep your vision and keep focused. Trust in yourself and keep going toward your goal; you will get there, you might not know how, but you will!

I believe in you,

*** Please see Susan Emo, Leeds County, Gananoque for the many comments on this post