My four power words

My four power words are integrity, inspire, create, and advocate.  These are the four words that I want to be known for, and the four words that I want to always live out.  Yes, I am going to pick a word of the year that I want to focus on, but these will always be the words that I want to define my life.  These are the words that most inspires and motivates me. (This is, of course, funny wording because one of my words is “inspire”).   This blog is going to focus on those four words and mainly why they are the main words that I picked to be the staple of my life.  

Let’s start with the word “inspire”.  This word’s synonyms are “to influence, move or guide.”  This can mean that you are moving, guiding, or influencing someone to do something. Basically inspiring people to live the life that they want to live.  This could be done either in a good way or in a bad way.  The main goal here, of course, is that you are inspiring in a positive way, whether this be through inspiring people to exercise, eating healthy, doing devotionals, starting a blog, painting canvases, etc.   

I do hope and wish in my many different aspects of life that I will be able to inspire others.  For one, I want to be able to inspire my students through my teaching.  I think that as a teacher we always want the chance to inspire our students to love school, love learning, love being kind, and love helping and inspiring them to be the person that they can be.  I have been inspired by many teachers this past year, and I hope that I can be one of those inspiring teachers.  

My second word is integrity.  The word integrity is defined by Merriam Webster as a “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values.”  However, many people I know simply define integrity as “doing the right thing even when no one is watching.”  Basically as a person, you pick certain morals and codes that you want to have, and you follow them because you have a desire to.  This is, of course, maybe because you want to please yourself or you want to please Jesus. You have a desire to live a life of goodness and holiness.  

I love the word integrity so much because it is showing that a person should care about what they are doing for the very reason that it is important and something they appreciate.  I think that there are often times when people want to do certain things because they want to look good or because they want to please others, but when you strip that all away, what are you actually acting like?  What are you really caring about?  Do you care about following the rules even when no one is watching because it is the right thing to do, or because it is the rules and people are watching you?  Do you follow those expectations and rules, even when it is especially hard to?  I have a great desire to live a life of goodness and holiness.  It is really important to me that I do care about living a life like that even when it is hard and even when it is not going to get me anywhere.  

The third word is create.  I love to create things.  I really love crafts.  I think that it is always important to be creative and to think of things to create.  In many ways, we live in a society where we don’t have to.  We don’t have to necessarily create our own pieces of art because there is plenty to buy.  We don’t have to make our own paintings, but rather we can just go and buy a painting that someone else created.  We don’t have to make our own decorations in our house because there is a wide selection of decorations already available that can even be shipped to your door.  We don’t have to make our own entertainment, but rather we just have to go on Netflix, Youtube, or Hulu.  

Being creative is also something that you can use in all areas of your life.  You can and should often be creative when you are doing your job.  A lot of us probably had to be somewhat creative these last few months when it comes to how to best do your job that didn’t require being around other people or having to do your job at home.  For example, as I have mentioned in a few of my blogs, I am a teacher and, like other teachers around the nation, had to learn how to best teach online as opposed to in the school building.  

There are a few quotes that I really love when it comes to creativity that I also wanted to share.  The first is “Creativity is the way I share my soul with the world.” -Brene Brown.  I love this because creativity is the way that many people share their soul with the world.   This can be through their paintings and artwork or in their writing.  It can even, again, be through finding the best way or new ways to do their job.  Then there is also the quote by Maya Angelou which is “You can’t use up creativity.  The more that you use, the more that you have.”  I love, love, love this.  There are, of course, times where we feel that we use up all of our ideas, but I have really found that the more time that I am spending in painting, the more ideas I get for other canvases.  Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there when it comes to being creative.  I think the world needs to see more and more ideas in the world, more art, more writing pieces, and more homemade videos.  

My fourth and final word is advocate.  One of my favorite quotes (I have a lot of them) sums up advocacy.  “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a socialist.  Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a trade unionist.  Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew.  Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”   Martin Niemöller, the pastor who wrote this, describes himself or other men who weren’t willing to stand up or advocate for other people in one of the world’s darkest deeds, the Holocaust.  Then when he is the one that is in trouble, as luck would have it, there is no one who is there to take care of him or advocate for him.  Martin Niemöller did later oppose the Nazi regime in the later part of it. He did not start out that way, and often will speak of his guilt for his original support of it. His quote is coming from a place of deep sadness for his part in hurting others and not advocating when he should have. This is also reminder that people can change and grow. We are never too far gone to start advocating for others.

To be an advocate one needs to not think about himself, but rather, they need to spend a majority of the time thinking about another person or people group. This again could really work with the word integrity in regard that one is caring about people and their well-being, not because it benefits themselves.   

You may have noticed that three of these four words are verbs.  Three of the words all require some sort of action.  They are not words that can just happen without any kind of work.  I need to be willing to have that work ethic as long as I also remember to have integrity in working through all of these actions. Now that I have shared my four power words, what are yours? Do you have a word that is your mantra or one that you try to live by? I would love to know it, if so!