Be an encourager

Hunt for Greatness
Milton Kamwendo

When you see greatness in those who are trying, you will start to see it everywhere. People at their very core are the same throughout the world. People everywhere hunger to be encouraged and affirmed in some way. Choose to be an encourager. You can choose to be one of three avatars namely well-poisoner, lawn-mower or life-enhancer.

 

Walt Disney once said: “There are three kinds of people in the world today. There are ‘’well poisoners’ who discourage you and stomp on your creativity and tell you what you can’t do. There are ‘lawn mowers’ people who are well-intentioned but self absorbed; they tend to their own needs, mow their own lawns, and never leave their yards to help another person.

“Finally, there are ‘life enhancers’ people who reach out to enrich the lives of others, to lift them up and inspire them. We need to be life-enhancers, and we need to surround ourselves with life-enhancers.”

A life enhancer is typically an encourager. Inspire someone wherever you are, make a difference and help someone to smile better and walk a little taller.

Greatness is not so much what you do for yourself. One does not need any new revelation to know that people are interested in themselves. It is what you do for others that ultimately matters and distinguishes you.

There are many things you may not be gifted in. That should not make you despair because there are so many ways to encourage and serve others. Choose to be an encourager and doors will open for you in unexpected places and unexplainable ways. When you help other people to rise, you facilitate your elevation. Stand ready to encourage while others are pulling down. Give applause while others jeer.

Give an honest prayer while others celebrate someone’s misfortune. Regardless of how busy you may be, create spaces to make someone else feel important, affirmed and encouraged. As you become great, you have an awesome responsibility to encourage greatness wherever you go.

One word could change someone’s destiny. One pat on the back could be what someone was hungry for. Your shadow could just be the shade that someone needed to feel heartened.

Choose to rise above silly squabbles, irrational rivalries, dimwit disputes and dry discomforts. Realise that each person you meet is a special gift to the world. See greatness in ordinary people and daily efforts. Look beyond people’s faults and mistakes.

Be genuinely interested in people, not just what they can do for you. Your encouragement is a door opener. It is a runway that allows many to land their dreams and find their wings.

Be purposeful about encouraging others and deploy it with focus. Help someone to feel capable and great. Engage in encouraging others all the time. Help people to feel that they matter and their contribution makes a difference. Help them to think big and to attempt something bigger than they thought they could. Be on a crusade to encourage everyone you can find. Fill someone’s sail with the wind of encouragement and positive affirmation.

Life is tough already without criticism, scorn and sarcasm. There is no need for you to become added grief and supplementary pain. Hold others up to a vision of great possibilities.

A little time, a small word, a tiny dose of goodwill is the flame that someone needs to take off. Encouragement is oxygen to the heart and seasoning to the soul. When you encourage someone who are doing the highest good and being a blessing. The greatest gift you can give to someone is not your precious riches, but to reveal to someone his own riches.

There are many great people who do not see the greatness in themselves until someone encourages them. The role of a motivational speaker is not mere public speaking but touching and putting the fire of encouragement in someone’s heart.

I do not write what I write and do what I do because I am great. I am just a fellow pilgrim who is also trying to reach for greatness.

I do what I do because you, my special reader, are great and it is a special honour and privilege to encourage you in your own quest. I am where I am because of the encouragement, affirmations and prayers of many people too numerous to count. People that gave me opportunity when I did not believe in myself. They believed in me.

People that opened platforms when I was not on the programme. They gave me opportunities. People that gave me resources that I could not afford at the time. They empowered me. People on whose strength I relied when I was weak, fearful and undecided. They strengthened me and encouraged me to show up. People that saw my calling, when I thought it was a mere hobby. They inspired greatness. People that sowed the seed in me and considered me worthy ground. They farmed possibilities.

People that said profound things, on which I hung my hope. They were catalysts and gave me the power of lift. They prayed for me, when I could not pray for myself.

They believed in my dreams when I was in slumber. They reminded me that I could live my dreams and greatness could be reached for. They were too engaged to wake me up to reality. For they believed that reality can be created. My heart is filled with gratitude but I am ashamed to say I have not said enough thank you’s.

However I know the best way to show gratitude is for me to spread the revolution of encouragement wherever I go. You too, can join the encouragement revolution because there is no one who is self-made.

People are built by other people’s encouragement. Help other people to believe that they too can become great. Show love and compassion, give space and opportunity. Your small seed of encouragement will become a forest of achievement in the future.

Your humility is revealed by the way you treat other people, especially in their down moments. Help others to feel that they too can become great. They too have a place of honour on the earth. They too have amazing potential in them and they are a great soul. Instil courage in little hearts and they will amaze you with the big things they will do. Make people feel that they can do great things and they will not disappoint you. When you encourage the present, you are celebrating the future in advance.

I am not asking you to flatter anyone because that is unkind uncalled for and cheap.

The fact that there are counterfeits does not mean originals do not exist. In being an encourager help other people to feel great, accepted and welcome. People will forget the many things that you did for them, but they never forget the encouragement that you gave them when they needed it most.

Life is tough without any encouragement, so why make it worse? Help someone breathe a little better and talk a little taller. A little smile could easily brighten someone’s day. A handshake could fuel mission. A few words, could mean the world for someone. Be intentional in your encouragement. Stop vexing people for the past, stop bitter diatribes and rid your heart and words of toxicity.

I am human. I have challenges and needs. I have problems and my share of difficulties. My little world of personal pains pails in significant when compared with the calling to be an encourager. Fight courageously your battles with discouragement. The battles may look private and personal.

Be encouraged to know that every private battle that you fight has benefits for many other people that you may never meet. Your testimony will empower someone. The battles of today are fomenting new stories of hope.

Life is a great obstacle course that has bends and turns. It has wins and loses. It is an unfolding drama with valleys and mountains. Sometimes you have to sprint to the finish line. At times you come to a high bar and you are challenged to high jump. At those times when you have to jump over the bar, just remember to throw your body over the bar and the rest will follow. Encourage someone every day, everywhere you go.

Even on your death bed, do not breathe your last without having encouraged someone to live strong and bold, daring great things and pursuing something great. Bless people because a blessing is an intentional encouragement that you invoke on someone. Words live for a very long time in people’s hearts and minds. There are few things in the world that are more potent than a positive push and an encouraging word.

Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author, and a virtual, hybrid and in-person workshop facilitator. He is a cutting-edge strategy, team-building and organisation development facilitator and consultant. His life purpose is to inspire and promote greatness. He can be reached at: [email protected] and His website is: www.miltonkamwendo.com