Have you read Bob Goff’s book, Love Does, yet?  Drop what you’re doing, rush out and get yourself a copy.  It’ll save you thousands on therapy. Bob hits life head on, unafraid of what other people think of him, say to him or do to him.  In Bob’s mind, nothing matters more than Love Does!

“Living a life fully engaged and full of whimsy and the kind of things that love does is something most people plan to do, but along the way they just kind of forget.  Their dreams become one of those “we’ll go there next time” deferrals.  The sad thing is for many there is no “next time” because passing on the chance to cross over is an overall attitude toward life rather than a single decision.”

Bob calls himself a recovering lawyer and adds: “I used to be afraid of failing at something that really mattered to me, but now I’m more afraid of succeeding at things that don’t matter.”

Oh how I relate!   Everything about what mattered most to me changed when my precious seven-year old son was killed.   That was the day the spit hit the fan (nice save, Dawn) and I realized how fear was affecting my life and the lives of my husband and my other three sons.

The world is full of people who share joy, sorrow, anger, fear and discouragement just like we do.  Don’t live your life in the planning stages.   Get out of your comfort zone and meet those who will benefit from your encouragement.

We each get motivated differently; the point is you need to get motivated somehow.  For us it was about taking our family through foreign countries, meeting the people and learning to love and trust ourselves and others once again.  For Bob Goff, it was giving away all the profits from his best selling book, Love Does,  to build schools and safe houses for women and children in Uganda, Nepal, India, Iraq and Somalia. Once in Somalia,  Bob was cornered by heavily armed rebels.  He pulled out his own personal large assault weapon – his smile and his whimsy, walked over to one of them, camera in hand, and asked if he could grab a selfie.  Seriously.

His reach is a lot greater than ours, but the thing is, at least we are reaching! How about you?   Reach out .

Practice your smile everyday.  Then give it away.  You’ll never miss it!

Have a great weekend!

Dawn