Last night one of my favorite gal pals and I carpooled to our daughter’s basketball game.

She holds a position in public service, and unfortunately, sees the “ugly” side of society all too often. Occasionally, she tends to be cynical – but for the most part – she’s great fun to be around.

I love her dearly, and I revealed a gift and blessing she can share every day of her life, to anyone, anywhere, at any time.

You see, I have this quicky ‘thing’ that I do EVERYDAY.  I encourage or compliment 10 PEOPLE every single day.  Seriously.

AND,  some days – I never leave my house!

On our wild ride down the highway I shared this with her.  She responded with a raised eyebrow and asked, “why/how do you do THAT?”

I told her, “Why? because I can and YOU need me to”

How? Explaining further, “being a good mother, friend, lover or member of society is not good enough! We need to ‘step it up’ and TELL people they are.  Everyone has something extraordinary about them – so do something extraordinary yourself – TELL THEM!

Here’s a few examples:

• a client of mine radiates energy, and lots of it. Each time I speak with her I tell her how thankful I am to serve her because she lifts me up.  This woman really gives me a charge!
• a classmate who is living his dreams. I admire him for living with intention and doing what makes his heart sing.  He inspires me.
• the nosy, all-knowing neighbor. I tell her she is appreciated because she “helps my family feel safe” by keeping an eye on the neighborhood.  She has purpose from peaking thru the curtains.
• bloggers on the internet. Openly sharing ideas and opinions and putting their heart on display for the world to see.  I comment so they know they are heard and their expressions are valid.
• woman in the grocery store. Appears to be tired and frazzled, but manages her grocery list with a clipboard and carefully checks off every item and notes the cost.  Her organizational and planning skills are superb.  And she knows it ’cause I just told her!

It’s not hard to be an “encourager”.  YOU CAN DO IT!

Today, I challenge you to identify just 5 people you can enourage or compliment. Friends and family count first! See? That was easy. Now, go DO IT!

Pretty soon you’ll do this automatically.  You’ll begin to quickly identify positive attributes of everyone you encounter.

Please post your experiences! I’d love to hear about them.