Help Them Know They Matter

​I am preparing for a presentation I'm going to be doing in Virginia Beach on Friday for community leaders working to promote the well being of families in that area.

My message is going to focus on helping people know they matter. This is not an insignificant message.

I have been very fortunate over the last several years to have people make me feel like my work matters. Make me feel like my writing matters. Like I matter!

The result is I pour unrelenting energy into my life each day.

Feeling like you matter feels like fuel - it not only makes you go - it makes you WANT to keep going.

And going....

This is why one of my missions in life is to make other people feel like they matter. When we have a world full of people who don't believe that, the energy of life dulls.

The atmosphere of life becomes increasingly lifeless.

And really, it's just not that hard to make someone feel like they matter.

Notice them - that can be as simple as asking someone how their day is going and being truly interested in the answer. Listen to it. Hold it.

Affirm them - notice something specific they do that adds to the value of your team or your family or your personal relationship (much relational emptiness is simply one or both feeling like they don't matter to the other).

Let them know they are needed - help them see the places where this world and your world wouldn't be quite the same if it weren't for their unique contributions.

From the earliest seconds of life, our lives depend on mattering. On seeing it and feeling it and knowing it. I can tell you there are a lot of people out there who question today whether or not they do.

Let's do something about that.

Let's help people know they matter.

Dramatic headlines can leave us feeling like the problems are too big and complex.

Some are.

Some are not.