Encouragement Ignites Desire - How do we Encourage Others

At the sherry fountain in my foyer I have already explained why I don’t see encouragement as merely an act of giving hope or support to someone, but as a powerful human force that ignites and feeds human desires.

Quoting one of my favourite motivators, Napoleon Hill: "Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything” and "when your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve."

How do we encourage others?

Encouraging others by example and ONLY by example, certainly deserves to be mentioned first. In our capacity as parents, relatives, teachers, colleagues, friends, neighbours we unintentionally encourage others to follow our example. We ignite desire in them and feed it by merely being ourselves. Because of this indisputable fact we have to be responsible –

In the shoes of the one who is setting the example -

“Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.” Napoleon Hill

In the shoes of the observer -

“Look at people for an example, but then make sure to do things your way. Surround yourself with positive people.” Queen Latifah

“Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you.” Russell Simmons

“It's very important to surround yourself with people you can learn from.” Reba McEntire

In our capacity as parents, teachers, instructors, friends, colleagues we also teach in a direct manner by sharing our knowledge and experience with the expectation that it will ignite and feed the desire in others to accomplish their goals despite setbacks.

In the capacity of a mentor, coach, counsellors or friend our expectations may not be that high, yet we would lose the desire to encourage if we don’t see any positive results. Encouragement is like fire; no response is like a fire extinguisher.

And this brings us back to what I have categorized as a fact at the sherry fountain: Our instincts (hunger and thirst) are not sufficient to encourage us to accomplish significant goals; our survival and growth depend on the encouragement we receive from our fellow-man.

“There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.” - Napoleon Hill

Again! The word ‘desire’. By having a definite purpose and a burning desire to accomplish our goals we encourage everybody around us to follow suit.

Thank you Angelia Phillips aka femmeflashpoint, Maria Jordan aka marcoujor and Shauna Bowling aka bravewarrior for encouraging me to accomplish yet another goal on my path.

Let’s allow Napoleon Hill to encourage us all:

“Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.”