Encouragement

I have been much caught up in the process and results of encouragement this year, far more than I had intended to when I started the year.  Why?  Because I have come to see what a necessity it is to any sort of achievement and what a destructive force the lack of it can be.

I have noticed -especially through my throwing - that encouragement is the thing that makes all the difference.  Let us be honest:  I am not a man of particular height or build or musculature.  My ability to throw - at least now- is, well, less than significant.  But what I find -what everyone that steps out onto the Heavy Athletics field finds - is that the fellow athletes on the field are nothing but supportive.  Encouragement flows freely.   Assistance is more than available if one simply asks.  The only criticism that is allowed by unwritten rule is that of self criticism.

The result?  I continue to throw - as much encouraged by the fact by the encouragement is there as by the fact I enjoy it so much.  And who would enjoy coming to something where one knew that no matter how one was going to do one would be encouraged?

Take the opposite and unfortunate example:  a job, for example, where one's efforts and labor are never really noticed.  Work that is done simply fades into the background and there is no encouragement provided except the underlying phrase of "If you do not like it, walk".  The result?  An environment where effort becomes grudging, where individuals begin to quickly consider what their other options are.

My question becomes why.  Why can we find some things, such as hobbies or interests, where encouragement seems so freely given and received and other things, the "more important" things of life such as a career, where encouragement is so grudgingly given?   The results of encouragement - greater effort, happier people, a better environment - are true no matter where they are done.  Why is such a thing not applied universally if there are universal results?

I cannot change situations of course, but I can change myself.  I am trying - with greater success - to make sure that I am an encourager to anyone in the circumstances.  If they like something they are doing, great.  If they do not like they are doing and want to change, I encourage them to find themselves.  I want, at least so far as I can, to encourage people, to give them the boost and feeling of accomplishment that others have gifted me with.

It really does make all the difference in the world.