Discover Your Worth! “Pick me, pick me!” I silently willed. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach colliding every time they called someone else’s name. It was coming down to the wire and I still hadn’t been picked. In fact, only three of us remained without a team. In an academic competition I would have been at ease, but I was aware of my complete lack of athletic swag. My knees knocked and my palms were clammy. I prayed to not be the kid who was picked by default. Finally, I heard my name. I wasn’t the last one chosen. But, still …“What was wrong with me?”
That question still taunts many of us each day as we face the fifth choice that winners must make. Last week, we covered the first four choices. To briefly recap, winners must choose:
1. Excellence over mediocrity
2. Greatness over smallness
3. Speaking up over shrinking
4. Being better over being bitter
This brings us to the remaining four choices:
5. Choose Self-Acceptance: The incident above was in my third grade gym class. It wasn’t the first or last time I struggled with rejection. In order to move to our next level, we have to stop personalizing rejection. When rejected by others, we must understand that the only real meaning to their actions comes from the weight and value that we choose to ascribe to them. Someone’s opinion about us is not an immutable, factual assessment of our worth. Their opinion of us should not trump our own!
6. Choose Forgiveness: Bitterness and unforgiveness are two sides of the same coin. Bitterness is the residue unforgiveness leaves on our souls. Every day, we must choose to extend the olive branch of forgiveness and keep moving forward in life. Unforgiveness is a trap that keeps us bound to the moment of offense. We literally get stuck in time when we choose to stop developing and growing through forgiveness. The choice to forgive is a vote for our emotional health and freedom.
7. Choose Caring: People and life will disappoint us and sometimes things just won’t work out like we’ve scripted it in our heads. Over time, compounded disappointments callous our hearts and expectations. We simply grow weary of caring about people who don’t seem willing to change. We grow disillusioned over seemingly impossible situations. The temptation is to stop caring and believing in our personal power. But, apathy never changed the world for good. We care about what matters to our souls. When all else fails, caring empowers us to endure! Resources can be in short supply, but when caring is present…anything is possible. People who care only quit when it’s time for a necessary ending!
8. Choose Faith: Persistence and faith have birthed every great idea and invention. Every day, we must choose to have faith. Faith sees possibilities! There is a time for being practical, but even then we must still remain open to what only faith allows us to see. Faith creates and builds based on the potential it sees in life—nothing great happens without it!
You don’t have to be extraordinary to make a difference. The world is changed by ordinary people, making extraordinary choices in the moment of decision. Choose to be that person!
Do Your Work! Listen to the “8 Choices Winners Must Make” MP3. Focus on the areas that present the greatest personal challenge.
Define Your Wealth! Declare the following affirmation over your life: I am an ordinary person, empowered and committed to making extraordinary choices that change the world.
Recently named the “North America’s Next Greatest Speaker” by eWomenNetwork, Felicia T. Scott is a Certified Empowerment Coach™ who empowers her clients to turn their Worth into Wealth as she partners with them to DISCOVER their WORTH, DO the WORK and DEFINE their WEALTH. Get more insight, download the FREE “8 Choices Winners Must Make” seminar MP3 on her website.