Encouragement: To Encourage Others (12/27)

December 27th

Encouragement: How were you encouraged in 2011? How did you encourage others? How do you need to be encouraged in 2012?

I felt it first when I arrived in Hawaii at the beginning of the year.

"What's a pretty girl like you doing here without a man?" Years ago, even months earlier, that would have not caught my attention. However, just the phrase "pretty girl" was enough to get me to listen. Encouragement came first, in 2011, in the form of attention. I wanted it and I needed it. 

"You have such strength," people would tell me about my circumstances. In a way, that strength meant courage, which in fact then turned around and encouraged me some more. 

I felt it later when I was at a gathering amongst co-workers who would become new friends.

A restaurant that I had only been to a few times was closing its doors, so I decided to "rally the troops" and encourage some of my colleagues to join me for dinner. The restaurant ended up closing its doors a day earlier, so someone else suggested another restaurant. When 13 of us sat around the table and I realized that I'd never been at a table with 12 other people before, I was encouraged. The experience prompted me to want to invite more people over and respond more to invitations. [Of course, the inviting part on my end of the coin seems to have lapsed into this upcoming new year, but I had good intentions.]

It did that, even when some unexpected people showed up, prompting a mixture of pride and absolute absurd childlike behavior on my part. Perhaps, I needed to be more encouraged to be an adult.  

It goes without saying nott all the encouragement people could give me, or I would receive, was enough for me to really and fully be encouraged. I still hit my own personal emotional rock bottom and thought I wasn't seeing any more encouragement. But, it was just my perspective.

Now, I'm reminded of how others encouraged me in how I encourage others. Only, I do it almost explicitly as I would want for myself.

Late this year, a friend of mine showed signs of needing a friend. I don't have to know all the details, but if you want to give them to me - then at the most - that person has let it off their chest. If it's the kind of thing that warrants advice or emergency counseling, then I make the proper referrals. 

In 2012, I need encouragement just as most people in their thirties: professionally and personally. Encouragement to be better than I already am at my job and to be intellectually and emotionally attractive (and open) to the idea of dating.

Mostly, though, I just need encouragement to encourage others.