An Aura of Excellence

Blogging out of turn today so Nancy can get her editing done. This was a thought for the day to my children a few years ago. Think I'll use it in my Laurel class, and may have to post it on my computer to remind me of this good advice.

The story was told of a young woman whose mother had died when she was two or three years old. As a teen-ager who was having problems with self-esteem and seemed headed down the wrong path on the run, she longed to know what her mother was like. One day her aunt brought her her mother's diary and told her niece she thought she would enjoy learning what kind of woman her mother had been.

As she left, she told the girl, "She had such an aura of excellence about her." From that moment forth, the life of this young woman changed as she began to put on that aura of excellence her mother was known for, and set goals to help her attain what her mother had hoped her daughter would become. Her mother's journal in which she listed her hopes and dreams for her daughter became the focus of this young woman - her reminder of what she needed to make of herself.

Don't trade what you want MOST for what you want AT THE MOMENT. It is often hard to keep our goals in front of us each moment, But find some way to remind yourself what your ultimate goal is - whether for that hour, that day, or that week. We'll forget, we'll relapse, but each morning we can rededicate that day and renew our focus so that in the end, we CAN have what we want most and are willing to work hardest for.

Smile today and help make someone else's day as good as you want yours to be.