The lack of sunshine has a big impact on me — and not a good one.  On this rainy, gloomy morning I had to give myself a dose of positivity.  When I think of pep-talks, I usually think of the weekly motivational messages that were part of the work I did for a former boss.  Often as not, while I was writing encouraging words for hundreds of other people, I was really giving myself a pep-talk.  While I’m encouraging myself, I thought I would share this one with you.  I hope it heartens you.

Don’t Lose Heart

Thank you, thank you for coming out to our organization-wide event, OIMS Has Heart.  It was great to be able to put more faces with names.  I hope you left with good spirits and a positive mindset.  For those of you who weren’t able to attend, don’t lose heart.  We’re still working together, building friendships and trust, and cheering you on.

With this message I’m continuing the “heart” theme from the all OIMS event.  There’s a song…  (Are you surprised?)  It was made famous by Tony Bennett, but it was created by two then unknown song writers, George Cory and Douglass Cross.  It’s supposed to be about two amateur writers who were nostalgic for San Francisco after moving to New York.  I know you’re hearing that famous melody by now.  That’s right; I Left My Heart in San Francisco.

While the song writers lost their heart to a place, the song made me think about a different way of losing (your) heart – don’t lose heart.  Don’t lose your inspiration; your motivation.  Like I’ve said before, I know it’s hard to stay motivated.  Sometimes it can be so hard that it might seem like the words are true, “high on a hill, it calls to me;” as if you actually did leave your beating heart in a faraway place, and now you just don’t have the heart to try again.  Yes, it truly can be hard.  But there’s somebody who can do something about it.  You!

Sometimes you are the only one who can motivate you.  Think of motivation as a “contraction” of motive and action.  It is like an inner force that causes your actions or behavior.  Remember the desire to produce the very best that is within you.  If you think of the satisfaction you get from doing something – from doing it the very best that you can, sometimes that alone is motivation.  Real motivation does come from within.

It seems like it’s even harder on days when the sky is gray, but you still can’t give-in.  It seems like it’s even harder when you’ve tried and tried, but just keep on trying.  Don’t lose heart.  If you’ve tried and failed, don’t lose heart.  Try a new way.  If somebody “moved the cheese” again, don’t lose heart.  Find where they put the new cheese.  If “the best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew…”  Don’t.  Lose.  Heart.  Be persistent, and to borrow from the song, and that “…golden sun will shine for…” you.

***