“10 Things You Can Do Today to Master the Universe.” “Do These Three Things to Live to 100.” Those are headlines that social media and content marketers would recommend. I get it. Suggesting that you should do what you can isn’t as sexy. Maybe it’s even dull, but let me explain.
I had a conversation with a person who was very down about her circumstances and her chances to improve her situation. Listening to her, you would believe that everything was wrong in her life. She had no skills that anyone would want. Her options were bad and none.
What I was seeing – an articulate, professional person – and what I was hearing did not match, leading me to ask, “So what things have you done well in your life? What have you done that people have praised and thanked you for?” Surprise! This same person who moments later had nothing positive to say was telling me about how she was so good at her last job that clients asked for her specifically and her boss publicly commented that she was “her best person.” She was the firefighter, sent in to fix problems created by other far less competent coworkers.
Where did the disconnect come from? How did she come to see herself as having so little to offer when others felt otherwise and had told her so? Here are two possibilities.
Sometimes our immediate circumstances and recent defeats cause us to think that we have changed for the worse. Maybe I’ve lost it, or maybe the world has changed around me and I have not kept up. There could be some truth to that, especially if you are talking about a technical skill in a fast moving industry, but there are some talents that we all have that don’t just disappear. Things like critical thinking, communication and relationship building skills are examples.
It could also be that some people just give up too easily or need some encouragement. If you need that encouragement, connect with the people in your life who can give it. If you see someone doing something well or know that someone needs a boost, offer those positive words. You can’t know how important they will be to someone who so desperately needs them.
We all hit rough spots, but we also have plenty to offer. We may never be a CEO of a top company or an inductee into a Hall of Fame, but we are all good at something. Figure out what that thing is and work at it. Forget about the things that you can’t and will never do. You are more likely to find success and satisfaction in doing what you can than wasting time and emotional energy dwelling on what you can’t.
Try this: 1)Set an achievable, realistic goal. 2)Do it. 3)Celebrate. 4)Repeat.
Before you know it, your negativity will be in the past and your self-esteem will be giving you the fuel to win.
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Some thoughts on encouragement: 100% Sustainable
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Bill Florin, CPRW is President of Resu-mazing Services Company
Work: Getting It & Keeping It 
“Set an achievable, realistic goal” kind of refers back to the statements that started the piece off. Our mass consumer marketplace sets people up for failure and not success. If one does not live to be 100 or has lost one’s job the consumer lords that be inform us that we do have something wrong and a) it is not their product that did not work b) you need more or their product or a different one.
The American consumer market encourages us to feel worse about ourselves and better about their products that can make us feel better about ourselves. Yet it is this marketing for success that leaves empty and void or real commitments that feed us and relationships that support us.