Decide to BE!
As I carried my sleeping 4-year-old daughter (Now 8) to bed from where she fell asleep, I had an interesting thought. My little girl used to suck on two fingers to go to sleep. She had this habit from when she was very young, in fact nearly from birth. About 2-3 months before, I noticed that she was damaging her tooth/jaw structure. Her front teeth were moving out and it was pushing her lip up. She is a very beautiful girl and I could see how this was effecting her face and her bite and it concerned me. We had a couple of conversations about it and I urged her, several times, to stop sucking on her fingers but I could tell it was soothing to her and helped her fall asleep. I would go in her room each night after she was asleep and pull her fingers out. She would often find them again in the night and suck on them again. One day, we had a serious conversation about the subject and she committed that she would stop sucking on her fingers… and she did. I am so impressed with her will power. I am so impressed with her decision and follow through.
As I looked at my beautiful daughter, sleeping in my arms, I felt so thankful for her. I thought about the saying I shared in a pervious post was: Don’t be Almost. My daughter definitely wasn’t almost. In fact, she simply was! She made a decision and followed through. My new favorite saying is a positive version of Don’t Be Almost. It is simply this. Decide to BE!
In the book I am currently reading, 21 Indispensible Qualities of a Leader, by John Maxwell, he lists one of the qualities of a leader as commitment. Commitment separates the doers from the dreamers. To the boxer, it’s getting off the mat one more time than you’ve been knocked down. To the marathoner, it’s running another ten miles when your strength is gone. To the solider, it’s going over the hill, not knowing what’s waiting on the other side. To the leader, it’s all that and more because everyone you lead is depending on you.
Commitment is the name of the game. I am looking for leaders. I am looking to build a team that matters. A group of men and women that can not only improve and change their own lives but the lives of those around them. The only way this will happen is through commitment.
Decide to BE!