Happy Monday! Time to rise and shine. There is a week to make awesome! Let’s get in top gear and make this week awesome!

Nice and upbeat, right? Yeah. I’m not 100% there yet, but the plan is to have an awesome week on purpose. At the time of this post, I’m recovering from a big weekend. Might blog about it down the road. Celebrated the nuptial of someone close to me who is just as private as I am. Should they give me the green light to place their story here, then, I will tell you all about it.

For now, let’s get to Motivation Monday.

Quote My Co-Worker Wrote

I’ve shared several quotes that my co-worker has placed on her whiteboard to motivate not just herself but the others who come by during the course of the day. It took a while for this particular quote to fully sink in.

“People who shine from within don’t need a spotlight”

Yeah. Let that roll around a little. See if you get the full meaning on the first go around. The most obvious meaning is that someone who is naturally outgoing does not need any attention thrown their way because… they don’t need it.

Folks who are the life of the party, the extroverts, the engaging personalities, the loud ones, etc. Those folks would make this quote ring true very easily.

Deep Dive – Natural Spotlights

The quote is a lot more profound than this. I’m sure the author explained themselves way better than I can. However, let’s just give this a look.

People who have strong values, strong ethics, and are driven with purpose tend to work hard in silence with their results doing more speaking than they do. Notice that I didn’t say they don’t talk at all. Some mistakenly think that they should never toot their own horn. Life has taught me that this is one of the best ways to remain in obscurity. More on that in a second.

As the evidence of their work comes through, people do take notice. They remember how they felt when so-and-so took that extra moment to explain the process. They remember how they felt when that person volunteered for that job that no one on the team wanted, and they nailed it out of the park without complaining while making the team look great.

People who do good for the sake of doing good, manage to get noticed. They don’t need to make noise to be noticed. And when they do speak, people listen.

Everyone knows that one person who no matter what is just beaming positivity. That one person who no matter what does not give up. That person who just knows exactly when to show up and what to say at the right time.

In time, those people have the spotlight turned towards them. They become natural leaders. (huge misnomer by the way… leaders are made, not born. They seem to appear naturally when the time is right). They’ve put in the work so that when the opportunity is presented, it’s a natural fit, a no-brainer.

The best thing about such people, they tend to share that spotlight. They rather others get credit with them than take it all. You’ve seen the gal at work who just knows how to graciously accept honor and shouts out the whole team for helping the project come to reality. Team players who serve others while leading by example.