I LOVED this blog post from Ann Voskamp // Here’s an excerpt….5 brave and beautiful reminders for you today and every day.
1. You’ve got to want to serve more than you want to be seen, you’ve got to care more than you want to be comfortable, you’ve got to want to give more than you want to get.
2. Promise yourself you’ll remember this because it will affect your joy: Be entirely engaged in the process of your work, and be entirely disengaged in outcome of your work. You can’t determine outcome — but you can determine to come and put in everything you have. Let your joy always be in doing the work — not in the outcome of the work. The journey not only matters more than the destination — the journey actually becomes the destination.
3. Love your future self — more than your present self. This is one of the best gifts you can give yourself.
4. Be a Giver. Get up every day and just do that: Volunteer to be a Giver. Never stop looking for a way to be the Giver. The world’s going around with a big sign: Wanted: GIVERS. (Sorry — The world already has enough takers.) Lean in and make eye contact and simply listen to hearts. Listening is a revolutionary act of liberation — it will liberate you from the prison of your prejudices and free you to love large. And? Always speak through your heart — not through your expectations or your frustrations or your provocations or even your lips. Always let every word you speak come through your heart.
5. The world doesn’t need more loud people who think they have it all right — it needs more people compassionate people to sit down and listen long enough to quietly realize they had some of it wrong.
When you believe that the earth’s atmosphere is actually Grace…You aren’t afraid of people or asking questions or risking big or laughing loud or believing the best or believing in beauty or loving across fences or walking up to people and taking off your mask and making every step you take into a leap of faith…
{Image via Allie Seidel}