Adversity is a normal part of life; it cannot be avoided. In adversity there is opportunity.  No one who has done something worthwhile managed to avoid adversity.  Challenges make life interesting. Overcoming challenges is what makes our life meaningful. Strength doesn’t come from what you can do.  Strength comes from doing those things that you once thought you could never do.  Your struggles develop your strength.  When you go through adversity and decide not to give up that is strength.  Smooth sailing will never develop the skills necessary for a captain to run a ship properly.  He and his crew must know what to do when they encounter rough waters.  The same is true in life.  Adversity is the best teacher to instill in you the ability to fight situations that will surely come your way.

Overcoming adversity will allow you to learn valuable lessons and transform you into a stronger and wiser person.  Struggles will develop your self confidence and help you to move forward in life. When you face challenges, resolve to keep moving. There is something inside of you that is greater than your struggles. Character cannot be developed without adversity. You must have experience in trials to achieve real success.  Anyone can win if things always go their way.  It’s the man who overcomes his struggles that becomes a champion.  You have no idea what you can do until you are forced to do it!  When your back is up against a wall, you can either beat your head against it or you can use your head to create a plan to keep moving forward despite the wall.  A dead end street is just a place to turn around.  Choose whether you will turn around and begin again or simply stop and give up.  Don’t let a situation stop you. Go around it or work through it but don’t stop.  Fire is used to test gold. Struggles test the character of a man.

One of the strongest attitudes to have in the face of adversity is the ability to keep your focus on the goals you want to achieve.  If you lose focus, then your struggles will seem larger than life and solutions impossible.  Great leaders understand that it is difficult to press through hardships alone.  They ask for help when needed.  One of your most powerful assets is understanding that no one achieves success alone.  Success is an accumulation of skills and the support of people who want nothing more than for you to achieve your goals. The people who have known their share of struggles, defeat and loss but found a way out have an obligation to share their experiences with others.  They know what does and does not work. Seek them out.  Glean from their wisdom and then you pass it on as well. Remember, the things that go wrong for you have a way of becoming a part of the gift within you that you can share to help others.  No one grows from living an easy life.  We grow only when we face a challenge head on and work through it until we have success.  If life throws you to the wolves, come back leading the pack!

It’s impossible to live without failing at something unless you are the type of person who never leaves their comfort zone to try anything new or different. If that is you, you have actually failed in life by default.  Your hardest times often lead to the greatest moments of your life.  Keep the faith because things usually work out right in the end.  If they don’t, that just means you haven’t come to the end yet. Have faith that things will work out, maybe not how you planned but how it’s meant to be.  All of your days have already been written in God’s book.  When you go through a disappointment don’t stop on that page.  Hold steady. Keep believing. You may be discouraged, frustrated and a little bit tired but don’t give up on your future. Sometimes it might not make sense to let go of something you have had for a long time, but it also doesn’t make sense to hold onto something that no longer serves a purpose in your life.

Life imposes things on you that you can’t control, but you still have the choice of how you are going to live through it.  It’s your job to turn your mess into a message and never regret a day of your life. Every day up to this point has contributed to who you are today. Don’t waste your time mourning over what you thought your life was going to be like.  Let it go.  Don’t look backwards for very long. Keep moving forward opening up new doors and doing new things because you never know what opportunities these new things will create in your life.  Learn to get back on track.  When things go wrong, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have failed.  You will have days when you make mistakes but that’s okay.  Your strength lies in your ability to forgive yourself, and no matter how far you have gone in the wrong direction, you always have the chance to turn things around.

The path in front of you may not be easy.  At times your journey may be long and winding filled with dips and turns around every corner. The climb may be steeper than you expected and your dreams might have to be put on hold but there is one thing I know for sure.  If you stay on course, believe in yourself and have good friends who support you, you will survive the trip and be happy in the end. Everything will work out in the end. You don’t have to know how. You just have to trust that it will. Stop worrying, wondering, and doubting yourself. You will know when and if it is time to start something new.  If you need to start over, have the courage to start and be thankful for the opportunity of a new beginning.  You will never find what’s right for you if you continue to chase the things that are all wrong for you.

You are strong today because yesterday you had to be.  You have wisdom today because of the mistakes you made in the past.  You are happier today because of the pain you have already endured. You are much wiser because you have learned that wisdom and happiness come with a price tag of hard work and not giving up after failures.  Purpose in your heart to live the life that makes you happy. Care less about what other people think of you.  The people who criticize your life have no idea of the price you had to pay to get there.  Pay attention to the people who love and support you.  They have a purpose in your life. There will always be a reason why you meet people.  Either you need to change your life, or you’re the one that will change theirs.  Enjoy your life and believe that your best days are ahead and may you have amazing experiences that you haven’t even imagined yet.

Work hard for what you want because it won’t come to you without a fight.  You have to be strong and courageous and know that you can do anything you put your mind to.  If somebody puts you down or criticizes you, just keep on believing in yourself and turn it into something positive.  Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life.  There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure.  You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.  You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror.  I can take the next thing that comes along.’  Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.  Helen Keller said “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.  Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”

There are no secrets to success.  It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.  Success is no accident.  It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.  Live a life of action.  Don’t wait for it to happen.  Make it happen.  Make your future the future you truly desire.  Obstacles are there to see if you are willing to fight for what you want.  If you don’t fight for what you want, then what you don’t want will automatically happen.  Life is not great because there are little or no problems.  Life becomes great when people do whatever it takes to overcome the problems they face.  If you can’t change your situation, then change the way you deal with it.

Don’t miss out on something that could be great just because it could also be difficult.  Don’t cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.  The past is your lesson.  The present is a gift and the future should be your motivation.  Cling to what is good in your life.  Love the people who love you.  In this life everything is temporary; that is why when good things happen to you cherish them before they are gone.  Don’t waste your time being in competition with anyone.  A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it.  It just blooms.  Don’t change so people will like you.  Be yourself and the right people will love who you really are.  Be selective and pick your battles carefully for sometimes peace is better than being right.  Life isn’t about avoiding the bruises. It’s about collecting the scars to prove you showed up for it.  Don’t watch the clock; do what it does – keep going.

It’s so easy to forget what’s important in life. One day you will realize that the most important things in life are not things! What’s important is to be content in life, not with things. Sometimes you have to take a step back and realize what’s important in your life – what you can live with and more importantly what you can’t live without. It’s not the material things we have accummulated that will define us when we are gone. What people will remember is how you treated them.

Sometimes it really hard to focus on what’s important in our lives. We tend to let the petty, every day nonsense blue the view of what’s important at the moment. Don’t lose the passion for your dreams by letting doubt creep. Don’t compromise the future that you really want for what’s easy and available to you today. When everything around us changes, we find out who we really are. You don’t need to lose everything before you realize what really matters in life. You really don’t have to announce what’s important to you. How you spend your time says it all.

Life is like a camera. Focus on what’s important, capture the good times, develop from the negatives and if things don’t turn out the way you wanted, don’t give up – just try again. Be thankful for the bad things you have experienced in life. The bad things in life opened your eyes to the good things you weren’t paying attention to before. Remember that material things can be replaced but important people can’t. Spend time with the people who are important to you. “Too busy” is a myth. People will always make time for the things that are important to them.  Become a person that other people want to be around. Be known for the way you love, for your honesty and integrity. These qualities are important for all of us to strive for.

Life is short. Focus on what matters and let go of what doesn’t. None of us remember the headliners of yesterday. One day the applause will die and someone else will come along and exceed the previous achievements. Realize that the people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care. With these things in mind, I think it is important to try and find balance in our life. It is important to take time from all of our achievement-oriented tasks to focus on those things that will add so much more to our lives. Tell those who mean so much to you how much you care and love them. Do little things to make your family and friends recognize how much you appreciate them. Recognize that life is about sharing and not about what others can do for you.

As you get older you find out that true happiness is not in how much you make or how many degrees you have or how big your house is. It’s finding peace and joy and contentment in your life that matters most. When you focus on what’s really important everything else will fall into place. The two most important things to remember is:
1) Use things – not people
2) Love people – not things

Ask yourself the question ‘what’s important to me’ and then have the courage to build your life around your answer.

Dionne Warwick recorded a song with the words:

What the world needs now is love sweet love,
It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of,
What the world needs now is love sweet love,
No, not just for some but for everyone.…

How true!

In other words this world needs:

• A little more compassion.
• A little less anger.
• More smiles, hugs, and handshakes.
• A greater number of people willing to listen to others, empathize with them, and lend a shoulder for them to cry on.
• No prejudice and more unity, peace and understanding.
• Greater tolerance and acceptance of other people’s personalities, choices, and peculiarities.
• Last but not least, the elimination of hate.

This world might not be perfect, but it’s the only one we’ve got and if you look closely, it indeed is wonderful.  This wonderful world is, unfortunately, tainted with the negative issues some people bring to it.  The problem is not with our world but with the choices we make to not love the way we should.  Whatever we don’t like about the world we live in, whatever doesn’t work the way we think it should, will not be resolved until we become a people of unity and choose to love.  By living in unity and love we will make the world a better place.  No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, background or his religion.  People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love because love comes more naturally to the human heart than hate.  Teach your child how to love. You should not teach them how to hate.

This is a plea for love not hate.  Whatever your beliefs spread love and not hate.  We are here to heal, not harm.  We are here to love not hate.  We are here to create and not destroy.  A heart filled with love has no room for hate.  It’s our differences that make us unique and beautiful.  Everyone is entitled to their beliefs and values.  If you don’t like it why make a person miserable? Kindness matters. You don’t need a reason to be kind to another person.  The late poet Maya Angelou said “hate has caused a lot of problems in this world but it has not solved one problem yet. “ Throughout your life you will find people who will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad.  It takes a mature person to not carrying hate in their heart because hate will consume you.    Hate is too great a burden to bare.

Choose to love rather than hate.  Choose to smile rather than frown. Choose to build rather than destroy.  Choose to praise rather than gossip. Choose to forgive rather than curse.  The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards real freedom.   Getting through tough times together strengthens relationships.  No matter what our differences might be choose to stand together.  No one is perfect but we must be willing to let another person express their views and opinions without thinking that they are bad.  Being different doesn’t mean that someone is wrong.  Let’s enjoy this world.  Let’s enjoy one another.  We are meant to love one another not to hate one another. In the end nothing we do or say in this lifetime will matter as much as the way we have loved one another.

Keep your heart free from hate and your mind free from worry. Give much and expect little.  Treat others the way you would like to be treated. Be a blessing and walk in love.  Don’t be envious of another person’s blessings.  Count your own.  You will find that you receive more when you are grateful for what you already have.  Do not let the world make you hard.  Don’t allow the pain in your life make you bitter.  Even though the world seems to be filled with anger and hatred, wherever you go take love with you and give it away. “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate and adds more darkness to an already dark world. Hate cannot drive out hate – only love can do that.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Almost every successful person begins with two beliefs; the future can be better than the present and they believe that they have the power to make it so. They believe that they have the power to make it so because they believe in themselves.  Believing in yourself, believing that you can do whatever you set your mind to do is crucial to making your dreams become a reality. A lack of belief in yourself will limit you no matter how great the ideas or opportunities are that you are exposed to. If you believe in yourself, anything is possible.

Believing in yourself is the first secret to success. If you believe you can then you will. If you lack confidence in yourself, you’ll break like a twig the first time you face an obstacle. Whatever you want to achieve, there will be countless barriers questioning your competences. The only way to get through them is by being confident enough that you can and will. This confidence comes from within, from the deep belief in yourself and your abilities. Believe that you can do it and believe that you deserve it and you will achieve it. You are what you believe yourself to be. Your mind will always believe everything you tell it. Believe in yourself. Don’t let yourself or anyone else bring you down. You are worth fighting for.

Michael Jordan failed countless times. As he admits, he missed thousands of shots and lost hundreds of games. However, he realized that’s part of the process so he used it as a driving force to work even harder. He also emphasized that it was his failures that pushed him to work harder until he believed in himself. You too should be prepared to succeed because you can do anything. Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside of you that is greater than any obstacle. Don’t wait until the right time comes along to go after your dreams. There is no perfect time to go after what you truly desire. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. But so what? Get started now. Stop yourself from stopping yourself. With every step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger and more self-confident.

Believe in yourself. You are capable of great things in your lifetime but great things can only be created if you first believe they can and then you take action, Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t do.   There will be critics. There will be supporters. There will be you standing alone but whether others believe in you or not, if you do not believe in yourself success is unattainable. Be your biggest fan by believing in yourself.

If you believe in yourself, a positive attitude will follow. There’s no way to convince a man with the wrong mindset that he can do something. The same goes for telling people with a positive attitude that they can’t do something. Anyone who believes in himself will not listen to negative talk. Instead of letting negativity discourage them, a person who believes in himself will let negativity propel him to keep pushing. It’s like adding fuel to the fire. Stop letting people who do little for you control your mind.  The biggest difference between successful people and unsuccessful ones is that successful people are determined to make their situations work for them. They believe that they have it in them to rise to the top. Don’t be too hard on yourself. There are plenty of people willing to do that for you.

You have this one life. How do you want to spend it? Apologizing? Regretting? Be brave and believe in yourself. Millions of people can believe in you but it won’t matter if you don’t believe in yourself! A man can be as great as he wants to be if he has the courage, the determination and the belief that he can do what he sets his mind to do. A bird sitting in a tree is never afraid if the branch breaks because his trust is not in the branch but in his own wings. Always believe in yourself no matter who’s around being negative because whatever you believe you become. No matter what you do, no matter how many times you screw up and think to yourself ‘there’s no point to carry on’ no matter how many people tell you that you can’t do it’ keep going and believe that you can succeed. If you don’t give up, every day that passes gets you closer to your goal.You only fail if you quit. Even mistakes mean that you are trying. Trust yourself. Think for yourself. Your happiness begins with you.

One of the most important keys to success is having the discipline to do what you know you should do, even when you don’t feel like doing it. It’s so easy to become distracted. There is always one more errand to run, one more phone call to answer or a deadline to meet. In reality there is only one thing that keeps us from reaching our goals – lack of focus. How well you master the ability to stay focused is going to determine your level of success. If you are able to stay focused at school, work or home, you will be productive and you will get things done.  Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. If you are distracted all the time, you will accomplish little and become frustrated in the process.

The big question is how do you stay focused in times like these when there are so many constant demands on your attention and everyone is pulling you in different directions? The first step to getting focused is to reduce or eliminate distractions. Imagine that your focus is a bucket full of water and every distraction is a little hole in your bucket. The more distractions you have, the more holes you have. Water is going to leak out and eventually your bucket is going to be empty. Stop being distracted by things that have nothing to do with your goals. Don’t get sidetracked by people who are not on track. Staying focused will mean that you must say no to some opportunities. Ask yourself if what you are doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow.

If you are going somewhere, some days are going to be harder than others and that is what keeps your brain alive. You will have peaks and valleys but take one day at a time instead of looking ahead. Tough times are just that – tough. but I promise you, that if you stay focused you will work your way out of them. Successful people never worry about what other people are doing. To survive those days you will need to pick yourself up and stay focused on your life’s purpose. Hold on tight to what you are working for. Let go of the thoughts that do not make you strong. Don’t lose sight of your goal just because your current situation looks like you are headed in the wrong direction.

Don’t be afraid of what could go wrong and start being positive about what could go right. Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do. Big things have small beginnings. Your start does not determine how you finish. Be more intentional with what you want. Your actions should reflect what you want. Let you faith be bigger than your fear. Things might not go the way you planned but that doesn’t mean that you lose hope. Stay positive and focused. Focus on where you want to be, not where you were or where you are. You get what you focus on so focus on what you want.

One of the greatest distractions you will face when trying to stay focused is knowing who to trust. One question to ask yourself is ‘has this person been with me the last time I needed help?  Will this person keep me focused or be a distraction? Remember, you can’t take everyone with you where you are going. Let go of people who don’t share your dream. If they are not part of your vision, then their season in your life is over. Haters can see you walk on water and yet say it’s only because you can’t swim! So shame them with your success.  Believe in yourself and you will be unstoppable.

Your main focus should be to remain focused. Against all odds and against all obstacles you are going to make it. It’s only when you focus on something larger than yourself that you will know your true potential. If it doesn’t challenge you then it won’t change you. Your life only gets better when you do. Attract what you expect. Reflect what you desire. Become what you respect. Mirror what you admire. Be disciplined about what you respond and react to. Not everyone or everything deserves your time, energy and attention. Courage is being yourself every day in a world that tells you to be like someone else. If you desire to be happy and succeed in life, get focused and remain focused. Your dream will never become reality if you don’t.

It’s easy for us to take the people in our lives and the things we treasure most for granted when they are there for us all the time. Sadly, most people tend to realize the value of these things only after they lose them. Unfortunately, we often take for granted that something is just there. This enables us to not appreciate or be thankful for what we have but this is wrong. Countless people have been put in positions where they lost something or someone of value without telling them how much they meant to them. Never take anything for granted. The things you take for granted someone else is praying for. Learn to appreciate what you have before it is no longer yours to appreciate.

Nothing in life is guaranteed. Life is unfair at times and bad things do happen to good people so don’t take anything for granted. A meaningful life is not being rich, popular or highly educated. A meaningful life is about being real, being humble, being able to share ourselves and touch the lives of others. Respect people who find time for you in their busy schedule and love people who never look at their schedule when you need them the most.

We always take for granted the life we have. We complain about how life is so unfair. We never stop and think about the people who have nothing. There are some people who don’t even know where their next meal is coming from – for them or their families. If you look at what you have in life you will always have more. If you look at what you don’t have, you will never have enough. Appreciate what you have before it turns into what you had. Appreciate what you have before someone else comes along and appreciates what you took for granted.

Relationships should never be taken for granted both the good ones and the bad ones. The good ones allow you to be who you really are. You learn that friendships require just as many deposits as withdrawals. Good friendships enable you to not only give love but receive it as well and if you are lucky, you will have some friendships that you can trust that will last a lifetime. Don’t take trust for granted. It’s hard to earn but easy to lose. Loyal people are the hardest to come by. If you have one in your life hold onto them. Bad relationships have value as well for they are learning experiences that have taught you who should not be in your life. Appreciate the really great people who are currently in your life.

Enjoy the little things in life for one day you will look back and realize that those little things were actually big things. In the blink of an eye anything can change. Don’t wake up one day and realize that you forgot to tell someone “I love you.” Don’t forget to say ‘thank you’ to that person who didn’t have to help you but they did. A person who feels appreciated will always do more than expected of them. Some people don’t notice what we do for them until we stop doing them.  Love the people God gave you because He will need them back one day.

The life God gave you is precious. Don’t take your life, nor the life of another person for granted. Look around you. You have much to lose. Hold on to the important people in your life and make sure they know how much you love and appreciate them. Don’t assume that they already know. Every day that goes by is a day that you will never see again. Make each day count!

Life is full of disappointments, failures and setbacks but none of those things should be used as excuses to not go after what you truly desire in life. You have the power in you to overcome anything life throws at you. There is nothing as powerful as a made up mind. Strength shows not only in the ability to be persistent but in the ability to start over. Instead of thinking that things are so bad and they can’t be fixed, set a new goal, dig down deep and begin again. Don’t be afraid to start over. Starting over is a new chance to rebuild but this time it will be better and more like what you want. Just because the past didn’t turn out like you wanted it to, doesn’t mean that you can’t have what you desire most in this world. Forget what is no longer available to you be it a person, place or thing. Appreciate what remains and look forward to what’s coming next.

Very few people find success after only one try. Persistent people are determined to try and to try again. Some have lost everything and have been broken to the point that they could easily have given up because they had no more to give. They laid everything on the line to reach their dream but became exhausted physically, mentally, emotionally and financially when their dream slipped away. But this is when you must realize that you have more potential than you think you do. Until you are broken, you don’t know what you’re made of. But once broken, you become stronger and stronger as you build upon what has been inside of you all along. Never be afraid to be broken because this is when you find out who you really are. Falling down is an accident but staying down is a choice.   If your situation seems too big for you, it’s because you are about to find out who you really are.

When something doesn’t go your way in life, it’s important to look at it as an opportunity to prove that you can adapt and overcome. If you don’t ever try to make a comeback, you’ll never get better at anything.   Grow through what you went through. Be thankful for your struggles for without it you would have not discovered your strengths. Life is not about being perfect. Life is about the effort you put into it. That’s how changes happen. Be wise enough to know when to let go of something and be strong enough to wait on what you deserve. Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of our life. As we work through and overcome our own fears, it sends a signal to others that they can do the same. You have been assigned that mountain in front of you to show others that it can be moved. When we rise above our challenges, we silently encourage other people to do the same. Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain. The caliber of a person is not how well they prepare for everything to go right but how they stand up and move on after everything has gone wrong.

Your journey is not yet over. Setbacks are designed to take us into a different direction – one that you would have never attempted before. You might have to fight a battle more than once in order to win. Don’t look back – you are not going in that direction. Hardships prepare ordinary people for extraordinary things.  Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. Be crazy enough to think that you can do anything in this life. While some storms uproot some trees, that same storm forces the roots of other trees to grow deeper into the earth. What about you? Will you dig deeper and start again or will you let adversity break you? You are not what happened to you. You are whatever you choose to become. Most importantly, be to someone else the person you needed when your back was against the wall and everyone who you thought you could depend on were nowhere to be found.

The 3 C’s in life are Choice, Chance and Change. You must make the choice to take the chance if you want something in your life to change. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, show up and never give up. The late Steve Jobs said “surround yourself with dreamers, doers and believers but most of all surround yourself with those who see greatness in you even when you don’t see it yourself.” No situation defines who you are. You haven’t made it this far only to remain this far.   There is so much more ahead for you to experience. Your past is who you were. The future is who you can be. Just when the caterpillar thought her life was over she became a butterfly. Besides, everybody loves a good comeback because the comeback is always stronger than the setback.

Empathy means the ability to understand how another person feels because you can put yourself in their shoes. Empathy will allow you to identify with another person’s feelings probably because you have felt the same pain some time in your life. Empathy enables you to see things from another person’s perspective which perhaps might change your opinion of them. The harm we do other people is not always an act of maliciousness but simply dismissing them and their feelings is all it takes. Instead of putting others in their place, first put yourself in their place.

They say that if you talk kindly to your plants every day that it will make them grow. Imagine what would happen to an individual, especially someone who is going through a difficult time, if someone showed them a little kindness . Whenever you see another person therein lies an opportunity for kindness because we are all facing our own challenges. Their fight is just as important to them as your fight is to you. Their pain is as real to them as your pain is to you. We all have doubts and fears about something. We all carry wounds from our past, and no matter how strong we think we are, our pain surfaces every now and then. So when this happens to you, when you feel pain either physical or emotional, do something nice for someone else and just for a moment you will notice that nothing is as bad as it seems.

Kindness is a medicine that will go a long way in making both the receiver and the giver feel good. When you are down, don’t stay down. Rise and pick someone else up who is also down. Show up when someone needs you. Be selfless because when you are in a bad place you will want someone to be there for you. We are all human. We are all vulnerable. We all need to be supported. We all need to be accepted and respected. Love people when they need it and even when you feel that they don’t deserve it. Love and compassion are not luxuries but necessities in our world today. Rather than think that everyone who is different than yourself should think like you, respect other people who have other views and embrace diversity. Our differences should be used as a bridge for communication and unity not anger or separation. Although our human nature gives us the ability to have empathy, empathy is a choice. Having someone show you empathy feels good because it tells you that someone not only noticed you but cared enough to do something to help you.

Can you remember the last time someone showed you empathy? Do you remember how it made you feel? When someone makes you feel that you are valued and cared for, it leaves such an imprint in your life that it compels you to show that same kind of care when you see another person hurting. How you make others feel says a lot about who you are. People will forget what you said; they will even forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel. No one heals themselves by wounding another person. In a world who couldn’t care less, be someone who couldn’t care more. Maya Angelou said ‘be the rainbow in another person’s cloud.’ Empathy creates a better world. Empathy is contagious. Pass it on!