Encouragement

It was pouring down rain, the wind was blowing about twenty miles an hour and our activity was running on a high school track. We were to run two laps around the track at a fast pace, run a slow lap and then repeat that sequence three more times.

The exercise itself was difficult enough but adding the rain and wind made it more so.
I don’t know that I, or the rest of the group, would have been out there if we weren’t working toward a goal: getting faster for a race in April.
I know that some of us wouldn’t have kept going without…Encouragement.

Each time as I rounded the track the coach called out: ‘go Michael.’ I am sure he was doing the same for others.

On my last cool down lap I caught up with a group of three ladies who were finishing up their last fast lap. One was lagging behind and I heard the two out front say: "come on you can do this, we are almost finished, just a half a lap to go." I could tell by the look on her face and posture of the one who was lagging behind that she was suffering, but I know in her mind she was saying: “I am not going to stop, I can’t let my friends down.” 

They all finished that lap together. Encouragement and camaraderie was the energy when physical strength was failing.

There are times I look around the office and see people putting in long hours trying to accomplish a task or meet a deadline. Honestly, I need to be more sensitive to these times and I need to stop what I am doing, offer to help and give some words of encouragement.

Have there been times you wanted to give up but just a few words of encouragement caused you to push through to the finish?

What are some ways you like to receive encouragement that make you want to try harder?