Good morning! It is 3 November 2022, a beautiful Thursday morning, with a sunrise breaking across the horizon with slate blues, sharp orange-pink highlights, and just enough purple to spark the imagination.
I voted yesterday. If you are an American citizen, I would encourage you to vote. Just one to a customer, thank you.
I like the word “encourage”. I am not an “influencer”, and I have no ambition to be so. There’s something about that word, “influence” that hits me at the wrong angle. I looked up a definition, “the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself”.
I don’t want to effect people other than make them think. I often ponder the questions we ask ourselves prior to making a decision. Some decisions we put a lot of effort into, such as decisions on purchasing a car or house, what wine to have with dinner, or that dreadful array of ice cream options at Sylas and Maddy’s (think Baskin-Robbins, but locally owned). Other decisions don’t require as much effort, or we sidestep the effort altogether – such as the decision to have another cocktail… too often I don’t put in the requisite effort and end up rolling out of bed rather than popping right up the morning after.
I am not a fan of people that put labels on themselves, so even if I did demonstrate the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone, I’m not sure I would welcome the label “influencer”. I know I have been one – that’s what parents do – but again, I don’t label myself.
We tend to get stuck on labels, and we do a pretty poor job being a little more creative with the labels we assign. Look up synonyms for “influence” and you see some options that mean the same thing but have just a slightly different angle of attack – words like, “form”, “shape”, “control”, and “govern”. I can tell you straight out that I would never want to be called a “controller”, and I have no intention of running for governor.
I like the word “encourage”. Helping people to work up a little gumption to tackle a challenge is a good thing. It’s so much more positive, and look at the synonyms – “inspire”, “motivate”, “invigorate”, “revitalize”. You can get a sense of positivity from words such as these.
That’s what I’m talking about!
I hope you can encourage others today. I’ll try to walk that road myself.
I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.
Peace y’all.
