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Kindle Notes & Highlights
Is the lack of kindness killing your career?
Your noble quest toward living a complete, enriched life begins simply and unwittingly with a choice to be kind.
“Kind deeds are never lost” (see Rom. 2:6–7).
My father’s kindness was a motivating force in those who observed his life. How different would your life look if you were more kind today? How different would your marriage look if you chose kindness over rudeness? What effect would more kindness in front of employees and colleagues have on your leadership? In essence, how would more kindness in your life influence those around you?
The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation’s mission statement notes how the organization attempts to “inspire people to practice kindness and pass it on to others.”2
dispensing acts of kindness improves mental health.
5. Talk less about yourself and listen more. 6. Allow others to board airplanes and elevators first. 7. Offer your assistance to others. 8. Offer words of encouragement to others. 9. Purposely smile at another person. 10. Help those who lack the power to reward you.
1. Kindness creates the opportunity for meaningful communication.
When you are kind, your blood is fortified, your immune system is strengthened, you feel better physically, sharper mentally, and more agreeable socially. Being kind is analogous to eating an energy bar, going for a walk, taking a hot bath, or having a refreshing dip in cool water!
wish I had a dime for every time my father said, “Son, you would rather be an hour early than a minute late.”
My father was not merely teaching timeliness, but the basic art and science of discipline.
Self-control, character, orderliness, and efficiency. How would your career change if you developed these traits with the same passion and exuberance as you develop style and image?
In other words, ours is an age that would rather feel disciplined than actually be disciplined. Roderick Hart, a distinguished scholar at the University of Texas, noted that in American culture you do not have to know about politics. Rather, simply feeling as though you know about world affairs will appease your sense of civic responsibility.7
To suggest that one can accomplish any measure of success without discipline is to suggest that a plane can fly without engines.
words that live in infamy in terms of global impact, and arguably resulted in the most memorable commencement speech in the history of the spoken word!
My parents, like other parents of this era, represented a generation of helpers—what I refer to as generation of doers.
We have become a generation of viewers.
This generation was comprised of folks who were reliable, dependable, and willing to serve.
How would your influence as a leader grow if you increased helping others just 10 percent of the time?
Helping someone else is so powerful that it can change a life forever.
helping others may be the most important element of team building that a coach, educator, executive, or clergy leader can foster.
“Son, always put yourself in a position to help somebody else.”
“Son, if you’re going to do a job, do it right!”
Often, true greatness is revealed in weakness.
On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the maximum, where would you rate your standard of excellence? Are you doing everything in your power to live a life of excellence?
Listening, on the other hand, is the active process of gathering, storing, and utilizing messages. Active listening involves thinking, filtering, assimilating, paraphrasing, focusing, retaining, and responding.
“Son, if you’re not going to do it right, it’s not worth doing at all.”
Is success eluding you because you are not paying attention to the little things?
My father believed to the core of his being that a man was not worth much if he could not be trusted to do the right thing at the right time in the right way.
Pastor Andy Stanley once defined character as an absolute belief in right and wrong, and choosing right regardless of the cost.
we live in a culture that encourages our “essence” to reveal strength of image rather
than strength of character.
Howard Hendricks said it best when he asserted, “The greatest crisis in America today is a crisis of leadership. And the greatest peril of leadership is a crisis of character.”20
Making right choices every day may seem insignificant. You may ask, “What’s the point? No one will ever know my choice or my decision.” However, what we learn from Gen. Yeager is that those daily choices have the power to instruct your instincts to remain in control—even when everything around you is out of control.
“Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity.”
Son, just stand! Just stand. The best lesson I have ever received. The most profound lesson I have ever been taught. The best job training course I have ever taken.
Let me make this clear. Life boils down to choices. You cannot choose what happens to you. You can choose how you will respond.
Something I’ve preached often, yet fail to completely live up to. This is one of those lessons that is easier said than done. But I DO try, every day, to choose happiness.
I had to learn I could no longer trust my feelings and my emotions. They lied to me every day. I had to trust God. Had it not been for God, I would have given up.
Dad has always been right. “Son, if you can stand in the middle of great trouble, devastating circumstances, and unbearable pain, then you will walk again.” For those who feel like giving up, I understand. But keep standing. The sun is about to shine. For those experiencing the excruciating pain of heartbreak, keep standing. Relief is on the way. For those who have no hope or reason for which to hope, keep standing. The longer you stand, the stronger you become! I have discovered that standing strengthens the heart and fortifies the will! Those who make a choice to stand will experience:
