You may think that this picture is taken from one of those Facebook or Instagram sites that shows up from time to time in your feeds trying to sell you motivational artwork or posters (the truth, probably, is you need something more to motivate you because you are looking at social media too much not and focused on the task at hand). But I’ll save my soapbox on positive motivation and brag on my daughter Lilly Grace for a minute. This isn’t something I found on one of those sites selling the flashy motivational artwork and not anything that I created or came up with, but something that 7-year-old Lilly Grace Strong wrote on a Post-It note and taped to the back of the seat that faces her in Amy’s car. She was going to a gymnastics class that was kind of intimidating to her and she came up with this image all on her own and, without anyone knowing, went out to the car and taped it to the seat in front of her.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in a lot of areas, but for this one, I will take zero credit for this act of motivation. While I read a ton of motivational stuff and spend a lot of time working on staying positive, I have never taped a motivational note to my mirror, put anything in my wallet or kept something of motivation on my desk. I simply just have never been one of those kinds of people. My mind wanders so much that I wouldn’t focus on it even if it were right there looking me in the face.
I would never have thought of something like this at age 7 and certainly never put it where anyone else could see it. Like her, I was very shy at that age, but what I lacked that she possesses is a mode of confidence and a way to will herself to stay positive and not have a fear of things that are difficult.
In our Monday morning account team meeting, we had a quote on screen from Henry Ford which said: “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” While it was on screen I thought to myself, that would be a great quote to put on the wall in my children’s bedrooms so they could read it every day and develop a sense of confidence at an early age. As I think of this note, that makes me so proud of my daughter I think it is my responsibility from this day forward to always teach my kids the power of something that truly motivates them.