404 If Im Going To Be Anything Im Going To Be Useful February 2018 Thursday Week 2

Thoughtful Thursdays-#404 January 8th The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast If I’m Going To Be Anything, I’m Going To Be Useful   “Be yourself, but always your better self.” ~Karl G. Maese I wrote this poem back in September of 2016 and I wanted to share it for this podcast I wanted to be a pilotCrashing through the heavens,But I realized that I shouldn’t have touchedThings that weren’t meant for me yet,That I shouldn’t have reached so highBecause sometimes a dreamer needs to be grounded.From the plans that haven’t been formed…Yet. I know I jumped too soon,I wanted to see what was behind the curtain,Before paying my dues. It’s not that we can’t dream bigger, laugh harder, and love fuller,But great things come with work,Not so much in the grind of it,But in the work of being willing to wait forever,For the things that matter the most in life. And so,I get to work on life,Connecting to this world a little better,Shattering the glass ceiling above,Not because I’m impatient,But because I work patiently,As I want to see the stars glisten,And I want to feel the heavens within my soul,All while I continually keep asking Did I put myself to good use today?CJO 9-7-16   A friend of mine was telling me about his son. He was told me how naturally gifted he was, and how he got things so quickly. And over the years of us knowing each other, he would tell me about all the great things happening within their father and son relationship. I believe his son was 5 or 6 and my friend and his wife decided they wanted to give their child an allowance for doing things around the house. And so, his son was excited knowing he would have money and be in control of his life. He could buy the things he wanted and not have to beg mom and dad like he used to…he would be a free man.   My friend’s son asked what was entailed with his new job. And my friend began explaining it was putting things away he had taken out, it was about helping mom around the house, it was to learn new things on his own, and he said a few other things I don’t quite remember. But the thing that really stuck with me, is my friend said to his son…your new job is about being useful.   And I thought that was a beautiful way of describing his son’s new job in one descriptive word. And so I want to ask you that question: Are you being useful?   In your family life…are you being useful to everyone involved? At your job whether you’re an owner, a manager, or you’re one of the one’s managed… are you being useful? In your life are you being useful to yourself and to those around you?   I know how easy it is to get caught in living life, in doing what’s required, so that we no longer are being useful anymore. Sure, we’re showing up in body but we aren’t bringing something better to the situation. We are slowing our output down, we are becoming stagnant, and sometimes our energy and our attitudes of helplessness or hopelessness are overtaking our lives as we feel the burden and boredom of our repetitious life.   So I want to ask you a blunt question…are you being useful?   What was the first thing that popped up in your mind?   Now if you heard what I said, I didn’t ask, are you useful? That’s not a real question because you’re here, so you’re useful automatically. The real question is whether you are putting yourself to good use.   The old me, the one who was very hard on myself, the old depressed suicidal thinking me, the old me caught in self-pity, the old me who found ways to put all the blame on myself…was a person who had trouble answering that question because I had a darkened view of life by how I spoke about myself. And this is why I do this podcast because affirmations changed how I saw myself, affirmations changed how I acted in my life, and affirmations changed my hope in life. The reason I bring this up, is sometimes we can be too hard on ourselves and not see that we are bringing great worth into this world…so I want to ask you this question again…and I want you to let go of any preconceived notions of who you’ve been, good or bad…and just let your subconscious answer it freely.   Are you being useful in this life?   And if not why not?   And once you figure out why not…ask yourself how you can begin being useful?   It’s a daunting question to ask how do I be useful? I mean where do you even start because there are a million options, there’s a big world out there, and it can be hard to really pick a place to begin. But that’s because we’ve made it too hard. We’ve made that question too big. The things that have been the most useful in my life where those small things that kept me going. They were those friends who reminded me subtly how I was doing a good job and to keep going, or it was the internal drive to create habits of doing something every day towards a goal I set—to keep chipping away at it even when it felt like I wasn’t making much progress. And it was the times that I stepped out of my little bubble and asked what my job needed more of, what my family needed more of, and what the world needed more of…and how could I be part of the answer for that?   So how can you focus on being useful right now? So take a quick second and think about what you could do this moment to be a little more useful here, right now. Yes, some of you may be driving, so it may be harder…but maybe being useful while you’re driving is being more attentive on the road keeping everyone safe. Maybe if you’re running a meeting, you could see how you can help your team be more engaged by asking more questions instead of just talking the whole time. Maybe when you come home you can ask your partner how you can help out with preparing something instead of it always being all on them.   And to become useful, it’s not about doing those grand gestures that we think about...you know the ones that say we have to be the hero to be useful. It’s actually the small questions that will be the most valuable we keep asking ourselves of what am I doing right now…and how can I be more useful in this endeavor.   Lao Tzu said, “Great acts are made up of small deeds.” Being useful begins with becoming more aware of where we are, what we’re doing, and asking ourselves or others…how can I be of better service to you? Because we already are useful; but are we putting ourselves to good use? I think the lives we want to live are ones not of surviving, but of being of good use to the world. So how can you make an impact in your little corner of the world no matter how big or small—how can you do something right now to be of use to someone, somewhere…even if that person’s you?   Today’s Personal Commitment: What’s your impact on the world? No matter how big or how small what is the impact your making? I’m serious here…give me an answer, give me any answer. But don’t take too much time to think about it, just say what bubbles up from your subconscious. And if you’re coming up blank…maybe you should start asking that question a little more deliberately in your life.   And as I said earlier being impactful doesn’t have to involve only big things either because the small daily acts of impact usually will be better than the occasional big goal we try to achieve…if we ever do reach that pie in the sky goal we’ve set for ourselves. And it’s not that I’m saying to have a small impact, it’s that I’m saying the small consistent impactful things will become big, huge, great, amazing things in this world.   So how can you be of good use today? How can you ask yourself that question every morning…and then finish your night off with the questions—was I successful in being useful today, and did I have an impact on this day?   From a small seed, a mighty gift will be born into this world. So plant your impact seeds daily, and continue to water them—as a mighty and beautiful life will be born because of this   If I’m Going To Be Anything, I’m Going To Be Useful   Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together, Personal Development Life Coach- Chris O'Hearn Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247     Music by: - Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. - I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide