If you’ve followed my blog semi-regularly, you’ve probably noticed I think a lot things are awesome—dealing with a bad economy, experiencing fear, and being disliked, for example. I’ve spent a lot of time seeing good in situations, but I’ve forgotten to acknowledge the most awesome part of writing this blog: getting the chance to know, appreciate, and learn from you.
You are all amazing. You make a real difference in the world through your blogs, businesses, and causes, and I am forever changed for knowing you. Here are all the ways you impress and inspire me:
30. You leave thoughtful comments that help me and other readers understand the world and ourselves better.
29. If you don’t comment, you still read—which means you want to learn more and become a better person every day. That’s huge!
28. You’re brave enough to share parts of your own journey to help other people—like Dani at Positively Present who reminded me there’s no reason to be scared of the past.
27. You tweet valuable information—like Jim’s suggestion to ride a bike for fiscally responsible fitness, and Mike’s realization that it’s not that hard to challenge negative thoughts.
26. You ask the right questions—both of yourself and other people—so we can experience more satisfaction in life. For example, Caroline recently posted a thoughtful blog titled What Does Life Mean to You?
25. You’re passionate, and you put that into your work—like Nadia’s who addressed this important question: how do you know what your passion is?
24. You’re grateful for your success, and the role others have played in creating it. David, for example, brightened my Friday last week with this short but poignant expression of appreciation.
23. You realize that a change in the way you interpret a situation could mean the difference between contentment and dissatisfaction—like Vi who taught us, “Just a small shift in perception could change everything.”
22. You accept and appreciate people who are different than you for all their unique qualities—like Tyler who asked the question, “Who cares if you’re introverted?”
21. You believe in miracles—like Dana whose beautiful mandalas offer “entertainment for your third eye.”
20. You value your relationships, and do your best to nourish them—like Divya who offers 17 great ways to nurture and grow your relationships.
19. You take risks, even when you’re scared—like Stephen who reminds us “The one sure way to guarantee failure to achieve your dream is to play it safe.”
18. You work at being mindful so you can be more present in your day-to-day life—like Roger who wrote a fantastic series on mindful eating.
17. You give of your time to help other people—like Rama who is giving free yoga classes in Vancouver, BC.
16. You honor other people who are doing great things—like Joshua, who profiled six great people who’ve made selfless contributions to great causes.
15. You help the environment by making eco-friendly choices—like Margalit who reminds us thrift stores have a lot of great finds.
14. You read good books and tell other people about them—like Thomas who recently reviewed the Dalai Lama’s Path to Enlightenment and Harvey who explored Aristotle’s Categories.
13. You have clever ideas—like Dan who decided to market his blog using Post-It notes.
12. You translate words of wisdom from great leaders into your daily life—like Tara, who recently shared one of my favorite George Bernard Shaw quotes on her blog.
11. You honor yourself—like Miss Unconventional, who recently celebrated her singledom and pronounced herself, “Me, Myself, and I.”
10. You aren’t afraid to say no when it allows you to take care of yourself—like Chehaw explains in his post The Tao of No.
9. You want to make a difference in the world, and translate that into your work—like Lotay, whose non-profit organization Black Card Circle helps leaders use their access and connections to support charities.
8. You conquer your fears—like Teresa who conquered her fear of networking events and offers five great tips for us to do the same; and Jen who is working on creating a new level of independence.
7. You notice and appreciate the small things—like Life on the Edges who publishes her beautiful photographs on her blog.
6. You market valuable tools—like Hans, whose Instant Video Coaching series helped me build my blog, and Alex, whose company Expert List Building helps people get more subscribers and customers.
5. You support important causes—like Chris who donates money from his blog to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and Autism Speaks, among other charities.
4. You know the value of a smile—like Sam, who recently shared great advice on Twitter: “A smile always stirs warm feelings. So wear a smile every day and spread sunshine to others.”
3. You build real relationships online—like Glenn who recently shared his approach to relationship-building on Twitter.
2. You realize “someday” is right now—like Dorian, who recently shared her experiences dealing with chronic pain and offered this advice: “Act on new ideas, try new things, change things up every chance you get & you’ll find what’s lacking…or accidentally fulfill it.”
1. You care about people, and it shows.
If I didn’t mention you specifically it was either an oversight—please accept my apology!—or it’s because I don’t know who you are. Can we change that? Tell me something about you in the comments. I can’t wait to know and learn from you.
By Lori Deschene, Photo faithful chant
If you enjoyed this post, tell the world! Share it on Digg, StumbleUpon, or Twitter. I am @lori_deschene.
Tags: Gratitude, Inspiration, inspire
It is a smile at almost 3 in the morning here, as I update life changes on facebook and linkedin. they seem small when I turn and my friend Lori has floored me, humbled me, with a notation, in the midst of one fine group of people. My heart and My hope is lifted.
I can only say thank you, and it is not enough. your friend jim.
Hi Jim~ Sounds like you and I have yet another thing in common: we’re both night owls! I have really enjoyed getting to know you; and I appreciate your thoughtful comments and the words of wisdom you tweet/retweet on Twitter. So thank YOU =)
I love this blog…I check it everyday!!! This site and the community you built is the best validation for many of us who can always see the best in our lives. I try to be the beacon you are on the web to the everyday people in my lives.
Something I love is being as chipper as can be on Monday mornings at work. I start off every conversation and e-mail with “Happy Monday!” and it never fails to “irk” people but in a good way. Most people dread Mondays, but I see it as the first of everything possible that will happen that week
And if you can get you’re team jump started as early as possible that morning [or afternoon if need be] it increases productivity and the general grumpiness inherent for the first day of the work week. So win/win/win all around!!
Wow, there’s a lot here! What a great idea. For a moment I pictured 30 smiling, eager-to-help individuals standing in a room together. I’ll bookmark this and start picking through these links. Thank YOU for the mention, Lori. And thank you for Seeing Good; it’s got such a helpful message.
Hi Lori –
What a wonderful list. I’ve picked through some of those links and found some really good posts and blogs that I otherwise didn’t know about. I’ll have to take more time to go through the rest.
Thanks for mentioning me. It made my day.
Thanks Lori! I really enjoy your blog. Just the title alone is awesome. I wish more people could see the world like you do.
Glenn
I think I’m going to make myself a plan to read one of these links (except mine) every day until I’ve reached the end (or the beginning?) of your list.
I hope your recognizing the influences and influencers in life and in your blogging motivates more people to do the same — sharing this kind of love is what makes the good better and the bad a little less painful.
Your blog is always a source of inspiration and perspective for me. Keep on writing!
aww. thanks lori! you have a shining heart!
Lori,
Great list and thanks for the link!
Now I have to check out some of the other links you listed. My favorite point you listed is “You take risks, even when you’re scared”. I personally have difficulty walking through my fear. Sometimes I can do it, but other times I hide.
Wonderful post! I love all of the reasons you mentioned and I appreciate your mention of PP. It means a lot to me.
This is such a great link and it really shows how much you appreciate your readers, which is a great thing.
Me, me, me, I’d like to be beautiful too… as person #12 I have translated the words of wisdom of a friend who has paddled far upstream to the source of realistic thought.
Mike G~ I am so happy you introduced yourself! “Most people dread Mondays, but I see it as the first of everything possible that will happen that week.” < — This is very cool! What an awesome way to brighten your office and prepare everyone for a great week. I bet your co-workers really appreciate that. I know I would.
David~ It is a long list, huh? And I know I missed some people who’ve commented before…I just looked through the last couple weeks of commenting. I love the image of all these people in a room together–what an amazing party that would be. =)
Vi~ I am happy to mention you. I love what you do, and I especially enjoyed that post on choice. I think it’s so important to realize we actually love what we’re doing.
Glenn~ Thank you so much! I love reading the comments here because it reminds me there are good, positive people in the world, who aren’t afraid to open their hearts.
Teresa~ I totally agree with you about sharing love. Thank you for calling my blog inspirational–that’s my deepest hope for it!
Rama~ Thanks Rama, and right back at ya!
Roger~ I hear that. I think it’s one of the hardest things to do. And you’re welcome…I appreciate what you do =)
Dani~ Thank you! I actually got this idea from reading your blog. You had a post where you mentioned things you can make other than money, and linked to several other bloggers within the positive thinking community. So thank YOU!
Harvey~ I’m so sorry I forgot to include you! I will do that now because I think you’re beautiful, too
Another great post Lori!
You impress & inspire hugely with your writing ingeniousness!
Thank you for your kind words – and the link!
You are so thoughtful to think of others so often! Thanks for being a positive influence in my life!
No, you’re great
Hans~ You are entirely welcome. Thank you for creating a site full of wonderful resources and for being a friend.
Angie~ Thanks so much for what you wrote. I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing you when I am in LA soon!
Joshua~ No, YOU’RE great…OK this could go on for a while, so let’s just accept that we are both pretty awesome, deal? =)
Hi Lori,
I was out all day and it was a joy to come home and see that I was mentioned on your blog which is one that I love. The best part was that you included me with so many other great bloggers. Thank you so much!
It is amazing what a great community there is in the online world. I feel like I know so many people even though I have never “seen” them in person.
Nadia~ Thank YOU! I’m so glad I discovered your blog because you bring up great points and share so much joy.
I was thinking that the other day–about the amazing community of people blogging about similar ideas. How great would it be to have all these people together for some type of happiness/positive thinking event? I would SO love to plan that!!
Lori, I’m humbled to mentioned with all these inspirational folks, and can’t wait to really dive into these. Thank you, keep inspiring others to be their best and you do the same.
Dear Lori!
It’s simply great! Keep it up. The only happiness we ever could feel is through contributing something positive to this world. And no doubt you are doing exactly that – in a right manner. We all are trying to leave behind a good legacy, and you’ve selected a very decent path. may God bless you.
Please drop a few lines about how you stabelize your mind towards positivity, all the time. Is there any short cut to maintain that?
And I’m eager to know about your exact age. Your maturity is striking.
Shankar.
I know of how sad feelings can be so strong you don’t really know how to express them, but it’s funny because it seems good feelings can be the same way too, just too much you can’t think of a way to express them in a correct proportion. I guess I can try by saying thank you for the mention and it did help to make my day. It’s also awesome you took the time to add all those links (which tomorrow since it’s too late at the moment I’ll go through every single link in order) because it probably took a while and also choosing what links for specific people had a lot of effort put in to it. It’s great to do all those mentions so thank you again!
BTW it’s also awesome that as soon as I was gonna type a comment that there were already 19 comments. Even in those times where my comment is way at the top it’s great to check later on and read everyone’s comments even after my post because everyone’s thoughts who go here are great to read. It’s true it takes a lot longer to read when you read the post then every single comment, but many things that are really worth reading take longer and the accumulated thoughts of these posts and community input is not an exception. I guess I means to say hooray to everyone.
chehaw~ Thank you
I enjoyed creating this list, and I’m so happy people like it.
Shankar~ I totally agree with you. It’s amazing the joy you feel when you put something positive out there. One of the things that really helps me stay positive is yoga. It’s very meditative, and it leads me toward a sense of inner calm–which makes it easier to be upbeat. When I feel down or negative, I practice deep breathing or visit my blog. Re-reading some of my writing or the comments does a world of good! My maturity has it’s moments (put on an Adam Sandler movie and it’s like I’m 12!)
But my actual age is 29. Thank you so much for the compliments. They made my morning!
Mike~ You are quite welcome! I feel like I know you sorta well, having communicated on Twitter and here for a while now. I love learning what you think about things because you’re smart and insightful. I’m thrilled to know you read all the comments. I get excited thinking about the sense of community I feel on here, and I appreciate that you’re part of it.
Lori, this is such a great post! So many great links and inspiring thoughts/words… I was reading along, feeling inspired and impressed by your writing (again!), when I found my blog in your list. I’m honored – thank you… What a pleasure to find so many like-minded people in one place. Think I’ll sit down and get comfy…
ThankYou for the praise Lori I love opening up google reader in the morning and reading your posts before any others that I’ve subscribed to. I feel very privileged to have been featured in the above list. 13
Dana~ I am so glad we’ve stumbled into each other in the blogosphere. I absolutely love your work, and I’m excited to see more/learn more about you. =)
Dan~ Your comment was so great to read. I’m thrilled that you enjoy my blog, and even happier to know you. By the way, 13 is my lucky number. That’s not entirely relevant in any way, but I just thought I’d let you know!
This post has been gracing the top of my “to read” list, patiently awaiting its turn, as I wanted to wait til I had time to follow the links. Little did I know I’d be among them! I’ll actually be working my way thru this marvelous list bit by bit à la Teresa. ~_~
Thank you Lori, there is nothing more positive than discovering the myriad wonders we each have to offer & sharing them. “Seeing Good” is truly done from multiple perspectives which can only be gained by checking in w/each other; borrowing others’ eyes. I can hardly wait to explore these fellow sights & wonders, discovering the wonderful people w/out whom such views would be impossible. 0_0
I’m also honored that you again quoted me & hope those w/little or no pain (I’ve heard you exist ~_^) will explore my experiences as well for we’ve all got something that would hold us back if we let it. Thanx again.. certainly for inviting me but, moreover, for throwing a gratitude party & making all these introductions. ^_^
(|_|*cheers*|_|)
“A real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust
Hi Dorian!
I totally agree with you about multiple perspectives. I’ve been honored to get feedback on my blog from such amazing people, many of whom have their own powerful, positive sites. There’s so much beauty and passion pulsing through this corner of the blogosphere, and I’m eternally grateful to be a part of it.
I loved reading your interview and the insights you shared. I’ve had my own afflictions, like everyone, and I didn’t always deal with them well. I’ve come along way, but I still need inspirations to remind me to choose the wiser path. Your interview was just that inspiration.
Fantastic quote. Thanks for sharing it =)
Lori