On Becoming You

On Becoming You

The greatest compliment you can possibly pay to mankind is to become a true-blue representative of YOU. Become YOU!

A great quote.

When you die and go to heaven,

your maker is not going to ask,

“Why didn’t you discover the cure

for such and such?” 

The only question we will be asked 

in that precious moment is, 

“Why didn’t you become you?”

Elie Wiesel

A personal story:

I’ve had nine or more different careers thus far in my life. Some were a perfect match for my skill set and some were a strain and I really had to work at being good.

One day, in my fifties, I decided to do a bit of self-examination and took out a yellow lined pad and a pen and begin thinking.

My thoughts were on jobs I had had and why I liked them or disliked them. A picture soon began to emerge. It looked like this.

I like to encourage people.
I like people.
I like to build people up.
I like to influence people for the good. 

I’m musical.

I’m creative.
I can speak and sing before audiences.

And then thoughts of past careers came to mind.

In every instance in all nine careers, it dawned upon me that I had attempted to do some kind of work of encouragement, even in selling life insurance and mattresses. Can you believe that?

And today, I’m a writer of hope, encouragement, and inspiration. How about that?

Enough about me.

What about you?

Are you becoming a real version of you?

Once upon a time there was very successful heart surgeon. This doctor was the most amazing and skillful physician at his hospital.

He had a son. As most fathers do, this surgeon wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. The son grew, went to college, got into medical school, and earned his white coat and a prestigious position as a budding surgeon, following in his father’s footsteps.

Dad was happy, the son was miserable.

You see, he didn’t have the finger dexterity of his father. The father could manipulate those tiny instruments during a procedure with such finesse. The son’s skill was sloppy, and careless.

Finally, to dad’s dismay, the son left the medical world and became a real estate developer. He just didn’t have the basic skills required as a surgeon and he realized it.

See the point?

We have innate skills and desires lying silently inside of us and sometimes we just need someone, or some set of circumstances to come along and show us a better picture of who we might become and what we might become.

A huge part of becoming oneself is the great adage of “Know Thyself.”

How can you become YOU?
Do you know and understand you?
What do you like?
What do you think about in your alone moments?
What do you dislike?
If you could change something about yourself, what would it be?

And what about relationships? To what kind of people are you drawn? And there are so many other avenues to pursue in this vein.

Have you considered taking a personality assessment test?
Do you know your strengths, and weaknesses, and do you have a good idea of the kinds of jobs you should seek out or the ones you should leave alone? Are you good with numbers or are you good with using your hands?

Self-understanding is HUGE!

This article could go on, but it is best to bring it to a close. Now is the time for you to go off somewhere by yourself and do some mulling, some cogitating and some serious self-examination and determine the important ideas to which you are attracted for your life and make whatever alignments are right for you.

There is only one YOU. Become the best YOU!

P Michael Biggs 

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration 

We Still Need Someone to Believe in Us

 We Still Need Someone to Believe in Us

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: On Oprah Winfrey’s last show of her popular daytime television series, she said this.

"I've talked to nearly 30,000 people on this show, 

and all 30,000 had one thing in common -- 

they all wanted validation. ... They wanted to know; 

Do you hear me? Do you see me? 

Does what I say mean anything to you?"

In this world, it is an easy thing for some individuals to become lost in the crowd of the other voices. There are shy people and individuals with a low sense of self-worth, and some that just plain ‘ole feel they are ‘nobody’. 

Some people are just too tired to speak up for themselves, or perhaps, have had some awful life experiences, and they reconcile within themselves that they are just not worth the fight to be acknowledged. And perhaps, they have committed what they consider the unspeakable act, or sin, or transgression. They feel they just don’t matter anymore.

What a terrible conclusion to reach – that you just don’t matter anymore.

My passion, my mission in life is to be an encourager. I want to be one who validates people. I attempt this through writing and podcasting, and in one-on-one interpersonal interactions. Am I successful? In some small measure, perhaps. Occasionally I will get a note or a phone call that lets me know someone needed my word and heard it in an appropriate time.

I’m reminded of a sixth-grade teacher, Mary, who assigned her class a writing assignment. The assignment was to write a short, positive comment about each of his/her fellow classmates and turn them in to her.

After compiling each student’s list, the teacher passed them out in class. You could hear a pin drop as the students sat quietly, reading what their fellow classmates had written about them. It was a remarkable moment.

Years later, one of the boys, John D., was killed during a hard-fought battle in Viet Nam. His sixth-grade teacher attended the memorial service, along with many fellow students in John’s class.

After the service, John’s father approached Mary and thanked her for coming to the service. He paused and continued. “We found this in his wallet along with his other belongings.

He began unfolding a sheet of paper, yellowed, tattered, and torn. It was the paper containing the comments from his sixth-grade classmates written ten years before.

The father said, “He carried this with him everywhere. I’m told he would often pull it out and read it before almost every major conflict in which he was involved during his time in Viet Nam.”

By now, other students had gathered around and one by one they each began saying that they too had their copy of these comments and how meaningful they were to them. Some even had their copy neatly tucked inside their wallets or pocketbooks.

You see the power of an appropriately placed word?

Has someone seen something in you bigger and greater than you ever dreamed you could be? Those kinds of people become my heroes. What foresight! What insight!

This is a great story and is at the heart of my thoughts for today. Our words change people.

We have the power to change somebody's life. In most cases we will never know when we’ve connected the dots for someone by our words of hope and encouragement, and yet it happens. This power still rests in our hands, and voices, and attitudes.

In the past fourteen years, I’ve written more than 600 blogs, and four books, plus over 130 podcasts. All of them with the intent and purpose of offering hope, encouragement, and inspiration to my readers. 

I shall continue writing and speaking for as long as I am physically able, for this is a passion to which I am dedicated.

If you take away any significant thought from this blog, I hope it is this.

You have the power 

to change somebody’s life.

Morning Notes Blog Site

P Michael Biggs 

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration

Know Your Worth

Know Your Worth

The above quote deserves to be studied and made a part of everyone’s philosophy for life. 

And the question is … so, what is your worth?

This is tied into the “Know Thyself” idea, and the “As a man thinketh” thought, and don’t forget the “If you think you can, you can”.

I am a huge fan of this idea.  As I am a fan of the Strength-Finders book and the ideas presented inside.  However, keep this thought in mind.  Once you know your worth, you then have to begin the journey of bringing that value to the forefront of your life and activities.  People will not honor you, recognize your worth and value simply because you declare such a thing.  We actually have to do the hard work and dig in, dig around, read, study, hone our “worth-of-an-idea” until we actually make something of it.

It is hard work.  It takes some alone time.  It takes mulling, dreaming, journaling, reading, and some real old-fashioned honesty with one’s self for your worth to then become valuable.

And you will become valuable … after all that mulling, dreaming, journaling, reading, and some real old-fashioned honesty with one’s self.

What do you think of that?

Ah, that’s another ingredient … THINKING!

This is my

morning reflection.

Morning Notes Blog Site

P Michael Biggs

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration

More Than What's on the Page

More Than What’s on the Page

I’m caught up in this idea of ‘more than what’s on the page.’  It has so many ramifications for our lives, when you seriously think about it.  I have a feeling this idea will find itself in other writings in days and months to come.  Hmmm.

Jazz musicians know this.  If they only played the page in front of them, we wouldn’t have jazz.  We wouldn’t have expressions, tempo changes, riffs, trills, major seventh and flatted sixth chords.  We would have less than exciting music, if they played just what is on the page.

You have a job, a life, skills and talents.  Are you playing only what is on the page in all of those areas?  I don’t think so.  You add your spice, your touch, your unique way of doing and seeing, living and being alive, and that is what makes life interesting and even exciting.

Some have called this ‘painting outside the box’. 

Some call it ‘creativity’.

This I know … when I push my boundaries and the push succeeds, then I’ve done more than what is on the page, and that is good … very good.

Go find what else you can do with the page you stare at daily.

This is my

morning reflection.

Morning Notes Blog Site

P Michael Biggs

Words of Hope

Encouragement

Inspiration