Put Your Heart Into It Today

There’s also no limit to what we choose to present, which means it doesn’t have to be company related. It might have something to with what’s transpiring in our personal life or something we have seen, heard, or even been a part of that moved us enough to want to share it.

Ultimately, inspiring each other is one of our core values and we share in order to live up to our mission – to move, inspire and WOW each other.

I guess the only real criteria for our weekly inspiration is that it comes from the heart, and it was my turn this Monday, so I took the weekend to think about my opener.

My days are steeped in routine. Usually, I go into my home office before anyone wakes up on Sunday morning and open up the day with a gratitude exercise. I reflect on what’s been going on around me and what I have to be thankful for.

I’m often also inspired by the Sunday sermon, and this week I was left with something that’s been resonating with me for a while.

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.”
– Bill Keane

This came up in my gratitude and I began to think about the blessing of waking up to another new day, excited to embrace its challenges and motivated to achieve the day’s goals.

Recognizing challenges as something to be grateful for is something I think many of us forget to do. We’re usually caught up in finding solutions or, being only human, getting angry or worried about why things aren’t going our way.

But the world would be a very boring place if everything went according to plan. I’m sure every one of us wishes it would all go smoothly all the time (sometimes), particularly when we’re faced with resistance, but the reality is that it’s this very resistence that prepares us for greatness and helps us realize our abilities.

Resistance helps us understand whether we’ve got the heart to persist. Resistance also fosters appreciation, motivation and most importantly, determination.

So I guess it’s important to step back at times, as hard as it may be, and give the challenges a chance to inspire us.

Because it’s the resistance we experience that’s normal, after all and not the possibility that everything will go perfectly as planned.

Accepting this universal truth is something that brings me great solitude, because I know that whatever I’m enduring, others have likely endured before me and more will continue to endure after me. We’re all climbing up that hill.

We prevail when we accept that we’re in charge and that we have the power. We prevail when we realize that the pressure we place on ourselves is greater than any other external pressure or judgments placed on us by others.

If it’s in our heart to win, we’ll win. And that’s simply because our passion, grit and perseverance cannot be taken away from us by pressure or judgment, regardless of where it comes from.

It’s because our greatest accomplishments come from understanding our own strengths (and weaknesses), and from embracing everything there is to learn along the way, like how far we’re willing to go and how much we’re willing to give. How much heart are we willing to devote to bringing our vision to life?

The heart is what keeps us going and impassions us with persistence, even when we’re required to break through barriers and overcome obstacles that seem to be making things impossible.

Our heart is what tells us the truth about whether we’re going in the right direction. Our heart is what tells us to get back up after we fall.

And our heart is what encourages us to make the conscious choice to relinquish ourselves of determination and responsibility, if it is in fact the time to do so.

Remember that whenever you are building something, there’s bound to be opposition and resistance. That’s part of what fuels determination and productivity and what makes the things we work the hardest for the most valuable.

And with that also comes the truth that our future doesn’t quite exist yet. So while plans are great, they aren’t here yet.

That’s why we need to make the absolute most of today and be genuinely thankful for our present by living and working toward our goals passion, persistence, and most importantly, heart.

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