Happy Monday to you. What another beautiful day to get out, start our week put a smile on and put your feet on the ground and know that you’re living a life of purpose. Living a life by design. Hi, I’m Jimmy Williams, welcome to this fantastic Monday, we’re gonna take a few minutes to talk about what keeps you going in life. We’re going to look at finding motivation from an ordinary day to make it extraordinary.
What drives you to succeed? Many times I look back during my life and I looked at areas that would allow me to say, that was the reason that I wanted to move forward. That was the reason that I wanted to be a better person than I was in the past. Maybe it’s providing for your family. The desire to learn or the feeling you get from when you help others be better themselves.
One of the most important things I always did is rely on my parents to give me that foundational message of hope and that I can always do better. My parents, I came from a very, very lower social income family. So, for example, my mother had a GED. My father had a sixth grade education. But they had a wealth of knowledge that inspired me and my siblings to be the best people we could be. My childhood was spent in Southeast Oklahoma. I was born in a very small community, back at that time in 1965 was only around 5,000 citizens. I grew up working on a farm, hauling hay, building fence, raising cattle, enjoying life as we say on the farm. That was a lot of work. But one of my greatest reasons that kept me motivated was the inspiration from my dad. He was one of the best work ethic individuals I could ever recall in my memory. My dad, his theory in life was, if you’ve got time to breathe, you’ve got time to work. You know, my mother also a very industrious lady. I could remember her canning food and farming in the garden to bring us more food. As the youngest of six children, I never went without a meal and I always had plenty. And the reason I know I had plenty was because I’d empty my plate and my mother, I’d hold it up for more, and she’d say, “Oh no, you’ve had plenty.” So that was the way I knew I’d had all that I needed.
One of the other things I learned from my parents is this, Honesty and kindness are the foundation for a great community. My father taught us how to be involved, and help others that are less fortunate than us. Even though we didn’t have the wealth of the world, we had a wealth of love, admiration
You see, we were meant to live our lives in a proactive fashion. We’re not meant to sit and reflect, just remember those good times, to put those good times in action. You know, words are great, deeds are better. Go out and serve. I will tell you that’s given me the foundation and it keeps me moving in my community to serve our local Lions Club. I didn’t just get involved, I was asked to join this club and I just started in from every event they had by contributing my time, and talents, and resources. I ended up being one of the youngest district governors in the state of Oklahoma for our Lions Clubs International. This was a wonderful time, I drove all over the Southeastern part of the state of Oklahoma, I had 43 clubs that I had to visit within my year and then attend an international convention. This is where we saw local communities reaching out to those that need eyeglasses, air conditioning during the hot summer months, fresh water and clean water to drink that wasn’t available when they had situations in their towns that those less fortunate didn’t have appropriate water or food
You see, we were meant to live our lives in a proactive fashion. We’re not meant to sit and reflect, just remember those good times, to put those good times in action. You know, words are great, deeds are better. Go out and serve. I will tell you that’s given me the foundation and it keeps me moving in my community to serve our local Lions Club. I didn’t just get involved, I was asked to join this club and I just started in from every event they had by contributing my time, and talents, and resources. I ended up being one of the youngest district governors in the state of Oklahoma for our Lions Clubs International. This was a wonderful time, I drove all over the Southeastern part of the state of Oklahoma, I had 43 clubs that I had to visit within my year and then attend an international convention. This is where we saw local communities reaching out to those that need eyeglasses, air conditioning during the hot summer months, fresh water and clean water to drink that wasn’t available when they had situations in their towns that those less fortunate didn’t have appropriate water or food.This is what kept me going as district governor. Those random acts of kindness that you see all day long are what keep a lot of us going. I look for opportunities to serve others during my day. Many times we get up and have the burden of the world on our shoulders. And we wonder oh my goodness it’s another day, it’s another Monday, how can I make this one better.
My point I want to make to you is this, quit looking inwardly, start looking outwardly. Start looking for those individuals that you know have it worse than you. Start looking for opportunities to meet the need or serve a weakness that you may not have seen before because you didn’t focus on those in front of you, instead we focus maybe on the mirror. At the end of the day, I promise you, you will see a motivating spirit in yourself by helping others be better. One of those random acts of kindness that I recently was involved in had to do with a family that had come on some hard times. One of the easiest things that I did was take this family food and clothing so that they would have an opportunity for their children to enjoy school, to not be embarrassed by the fact that there may have been rough times and their children didn’t have the best of clothing. I guess what I’m trying to say is as a human being I really feel a desire need, and you can to, to reach out and help others. So that in turn helps you emotionally. So I would say it this way, by helping others, you in turn help yourself internally. There’s not a warmer feeling in your heart on a Monday, as to get out seek someone that could use a helping hand, not just a hand out, and give them the opportunity to have dignity and be a contributor themselves in your community.
You know, one of the things
What are your “big 3” for the day that you know will be empowering to you, and that will impact you in a powerful way to help others? What direction are you moving that is in a forward motion so you’re not just stuck in the mud, if you will, of yesterday. But you’re creating and forming the future for tomorrow. You know, one of the greatest things that I always find in this world, is when I look around and see that others have it so much worse than I. That’s what you need to focus on. Look outward, not inward, as I said earlier.
You know, a friend of mine, Simon Sinek, he’s an author of a book called Start with Why. The whole premise behind his book is if you look at why you do something, the how will take care of itself. So why I want you to go out today and look at others, to see if you can provide a hand a kind word, if you can help them have a better day I promise you your day will go much better as well. And never ever give up. Some days I got to be honest, I don’t feel I’m at my best. I do what I can to shift that thinking around to a more positive attitude. There was a poem I remember from my younger days. It was simply titled, Don’t Quit. I don’t recall the author, I believe it was anonymous at the time that I read it. It goes something like this:
“When things go wrong, as they sometimes will. When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill. When the funds are low and the debts are high. And you want to smile, but you have to sigh. When care is pressing you down a bit, rest if you must, but don’t you quit. Life is queer with its twists and turns. As everyone of us, sometimes learns. And many a failure turns about, when he might have won, had he stuck it out. Don’t give up, tho the pace seems slow. You may succeed with another blow. Success is failure turned inside out. The silver tint of the clouds of doubt. And you never can tell how close you are. It may be near when it seems so far. So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit. It’s when things seem worse that you must not quit.”
Too often we don’t know how close the finish line is at the close of a day. So each day is a blessing. Hope this one is a blessing to you, get out make this day the best day that you could ever have. And remember my motto, that Mondays are nothing more than a Friday that got left behind. Go out today, live your life by design.
