Grace is something we all want, isn’t it?

When you’re in trouble, grace means someone else paid to get you out.

In sports, grace means you move with fluid precision and your work becomes art.

To a stranger in a new place, grace moves some to offer their hand in friendship.

When writers show (and share) grace, strangers become friends, followers, and fans.

Let’s look at 3 ways to do that.

Favor

We want to be our reader’s favorite.

There are countless choices. The internet is swollen with blog posts, videos, social media posts, and stories. …

Are you ready for a fresh start?

2021 is just around the corner. Do you have any resolutions? If not, what are your goals?

The first month is the ultimate test for all your plans. You start happy, fresh, and ready to move. As you stretch, your muscles (physical or otherwise) hurt. Your emotions tempt you to give up. Do you push forward? Or do you turn back around and resume your old path?

You wanted to push forward when you set your goal. Is your destination a paradise or a prison? …

Today all you need is a smartphone and an internet connection to go into business.

That’s great news for creative entrepreneurs. Entry is as easy as walking through an open door.

But once you’re in the room, you’ll find it filled wall-to-wall with people just like you.

In a world where everyone has a microphone, there are more opportunities to be heard….and ignored. Shout into a crowd and those closest will hear you. The rest won’t know you exist.

Unless you get an amplified mike.

To do that, you need to get on stage. Podcasts and advertisements can amplify your voice. …

In 1918, 500 million people were infected with the Spanish Flu.

Mask mandates were ordered. Government officials called for people to stay home. People were hospitalized, and 50 million people died.

There was no vaccine to stop it, and decades passed before scientists decoded it.

And now, history seems to be repeating itself.

It may not be obvious

Most of us have never lived through a pandemic, so we call it unprecedented.

But there is still much to be thankful for.

You’re alive. You’re breathing. You have food on the table, and shelter over your head.

We take these things for granted. …

This week I started reading Zig Ziglar’s Over the Top.

I bought the book 8 years ago. I had good intentions. I was going to read it before the end of 2013.

I didn’t.

For the first time in my adult life, I have written goals. And not just for one round. I’m in my second round of goals now. And it’s not because I didn’t know better. I just thought I could wing it. I believed I could read all the self-help in the world, store it in my brain, and access it whenever I needed to.

That’s a start, but it won’t carry you far. …

When I was a kid, we had a family doctor. He was the medical jack-of-all-trades. He was the guy you end to first when you had questions.

He didn’t have all the answers, but he knew people who did. At the very least, he knew where to start.

That’s the key to success in anything.

You don’t have to know it all to start. In fact, you may not have to know much at all. …

Election seasons always ignite people’s passions on social media (and sometimes in public).

It’s easy to post from your bedroom where no one can punch you in the face. But when you have a disagreement in public, you act differently.

If you’ve known anyone well for more than a week or two, you’ll find something to disagree about. Someone said if two people agree about absolutely everything, one of them is not needed. When we disagree with someone we like, we feel tension. …

I was in a book group once with a group of University professors.

They all have three degrees on the wall. I ran away from college because I just couldn’t choose a major to stick with.

Talk about intimidation.

When professors talk, they use big words. It’s as if they speak to impress rather than express. I confess I don’t always understand what they say, where they’re going in conversation, or even what their point is.

I wonder if some of their students don’t have the same problem.

There is this unspoken air of pomposity in the room and it makes others feel like they don’t have anything valuable to contribute. …