Written on December 13, 2022 (Shared with y’all on December 20, 2022)
Truth
Helpful
Inspiring
Necessary
Kind
I find cool things like the acronym above and ask, “What would our world be like if we taught that to our children?” Would be different and possibly even better than it is now.
What is frustrating is we are wavering on several of the words in the acronym. For example, ‘truth.’ Just that word alone is causing frustration, which is a shame. A country, such as ours, needs to have fundamental TRUTH. We need to believe and defend simple truths, such as, 2+2=4. Mr. Rogers’ truth boys are born as boys and girls are born as girls is now heresy (sarcasm; I believe in what Mr. Rogers was singing about). The word ‘helpful.’ Is it helpful to be a child’s parent when you are not the parent? “I was just trying to be helpful,” says the teacher.
I look at the word “kind” in the ‘think’ acronym. Too many of us are confusing the word ‘kind’ with ‘nice.’ Kind: of a forbearing nature. Nice: polite. ‘Kind’ and ‘nice’ is almost like ‘know’ and ‘think.’ I was just being kind when in fact you were being nice. I think that 2+2=4 oppose to I know that 2+2=4. When we disagree with someone, let’s be kind. To agree with someone, you disagree with is not being nice.
As with the previous weeks’ articles, we are outlining John C. Maxwell’s book MAKE TODAY COUNT. I hope you will buy the book. From encouraging you to buy the book, I receive nothing financially. What I do receive is the joy from hearing your positive responses from this outline and/or buying his book.
Thinking needs to be a part of your daily life. Make the decision to practice and develop good thinking daily. Dr. Maxwell gives us several ways to help with this decision and putting it into practice. There are three things to consider: 1). understand that great thinking comes from good thinking, 2). recognize there are many kinds of thinking, 3). maximize your strengths and staff your weaknesses. We are going to focus on understand that great thinking comes from good thinking. How do we become good thinkers? Answer: BY THINKING A LOT! Come up with many ideas – good and bad. Talk them out to yourself and to others. One thing to do with teenagers is give them the chance to think out loud. One piece of advice I remember from my father when we reconnected in my early forties was, “let children / teenagers talk. The more they talk the more they will be able to hear how stupid they are or how smart they are. Sometimes we don’t give them enough of a chance to talk. Let them talk.” GREAT ADVICE.
We need to manage the discipline of thinking. For each day to count, be special, be productive, we need to have discipline. Remember my “E-Triangle.” 
In this world that seems to be “either you agree with me or you are wrong and even bad,” our thinking can be manipulated. There needs to be a sense of you knowing right and wrong. You need to be able to think with that moral compas / integrity. The practice Dr. Maxwell’s shares is: Every day I will set aside a time to think, and I will determin to think on the right things. What are the right things? YOU GET TO DECIDE. If you want to (and you should want to), you need to do the following:
- Find a Place to Think
- Set Aside Think Time Every Day
- Find a Process That Works for You
- Capture Your Thoughts
- Put Your Thoughts into Action Quickly
- Improve Your Thinking Every Day
Let’s focus on “Improve Your Thinking Every Day.”
Focus on the positive: we know the world ‘thrives’ on the negative. If it bleeds, it leads – says the media.
Find the positives in your life: Simple things: your life, good family, good friends, success at work. You know you have positives in your life. You have two channels: Channel One – Positive & Channel Two – Negative. Change the channel to Channel One! Even make a list of positive things in your life and think about them.
Gather Good Input: Find those positive articles / good books to read. Good stuff in – good stuff out. When you have the choice to read something positive or negative, have the discipline to read the positive!
Spend Time with Good Thinkers: Birds of a feather flock together. You must have some people in your life who are good thinkers. Find them. Be with them. Also, if you spend time with good thinkers, you will find that the exposure sharpens your thinking (Dr. Maxwell).
What are you thinking about right now? I hope you are thinking about something positive. Something that is going to add value to you and to others. In giving this to you, my thinking is both of us can improve. You can improve by utilizing this fantastic information. Let’s get better because better people make better leaders.
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Thank you for reading this. There is more detail in MAKE TODAY COUNT, please do consider buying Dr. Maxwell’s book: Make Today Count: The Secret of Your Success Is Determined by Your Daily Agenda: Maxwell, John C.: 8601404837890: Amazon.com: Books
Also, please consider hiring me to give you and/or your business, church, non-profit, school a fantastic seminar on being a person!! I love sharing great information with you. email: band2gether@comcast.net Thank you for reading this. Next article will be on COMMITMENT.