Trust in Me

Trust is one of the hardest things for a person to do to another person.  It takes on so many facets of life.  Trust in a parent to take care of a child, a trusting friend who a girl to tell secrets to and that friend will never tell a living soul or even a patient on the verge of dying trusting that their doctor and their family will make the right decisions on their behalf. 

Yes, trust is that word which says, “I put my life in your hands, and you are not going to let nothing happen to me no matter what.”

 So, what happens to that trust?  That is what I am going to talk about today.  So, “trust in me” as we talk about trust.

What is a trust?

Trust. created by P.Lynne Designs
Through Canvas.com

Under social context, according to Wikipedia, is “Trust has several connotations”.  The one I will be concentrating on is the one that says, “a situation characterized by the following aspects: One party is willing to rely on the actions of another party; the situation is directed to the future.”  Do you see why I used the previous examples in this piece?

The reason for this post

Lately, I have been disenchanted by the way things have been in this country, specifically the last couple of weeks.  No, this is not a political post, which would have included a campaign for you to vote for this candidate or hate another.  We all have our reasons for voting and supporting the person who we think is better to run the country.  No one is perfect.  It all goes back to trust, and trust does not need a campaign slogan to be heard.  Later, I will tackle “the art of advertising and influencers”, part 2 and conclusion of a miniseries.

Disenchantment be damned

Like many Americans, three weeks ago, on a Sunday, in the middle of the summer season, I was sitting down with my mom at my parent’s home.  My family and I usually take Sunday as a day of rest, to worship God by going to church, coming back to my parent’s home, eat and rest.  We talk about things that went on during service.  We are United Methodists, part of the Protestant Christian faith.  We believe in the Holy Trinity (God, Son, Holy Spirit), with the Son being the savior by dying on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins.  We are to do God’s will, which is to love all mankind, no matter what their life is like, everyone can be saved.

I say that to say this:  whoever pulled the trigger on the people at that Garlic Festival was not acting in God’s will.  I am not saying that the person was Christian, but the actions of this person too were not the way that Jesus would act.  I am going to leave it at that comment for now.  Same with the incident in El Paso, TX, and Dayton, Ohio. 

The Dayton, Ohio incident was about an hour and a half from me, plus my brother lives there, so I feel more apart of that incident than the El Paso, TX one because of my brother, who, thank God was at my parent’s house in Columbus when the shooting happened, and I thank God that my Sis-In-Law, who was at home, was nowhere near the Oregon District.

So what does that have to do with trust?

As Christians, we trust that God will take care of us, no matter what.  We also trust that the people who did not make it in these incidents over the past few weeks and beyond had a purpose to teach so that others will learn of our mistakes. 

This next thing that I have to say may turn some people off, and that’s okay.  Maybe this country and this world need to learn a lesson or two.  No, do not misquote me.  I grieve for every single person, including the people who pulled the trigger.  We have been too loose with the second amendment, “the right to bear arms”. This to me is the NRA’s Motto, but there needs to be an amendment to the amendment.  You do have the right to have guns for sport and protection, BUT if you want to do harm to anyone (including self) because of hatred or mental illness, you do not have that right, period. The second amendment does not apply to you.  Before you can purchase a gun AND own a gun license you must go through a deep background check and take a class on gun safety.  This is how you can build trust.  I think that is what those who have died in the name of gun reform have taught us.  Yes, it is gruesome, but someone became a martyr because of gun control.

On top of that, Japan, and other countries are now telling their citizens to stay away from us, and do not visit the United States at all.  Now that is deep.

Conclusion

This is a short post (less than 1000 words) because there is nothing more to say on this kind of trust except to:

• Be aware of your surroundings
• Use the buddy system whenever you can
• If you carry a concealed weapon with you, make sure that the safety is on, have your license on you, and that you are of sound mind IF you have to use it.
• Never carry it in a building that does not allow on in it.
• Never escalate an argument with anyone.  Or finish one for that matter.  Get the proper authorities if someone is bothering you.
• Report anything suspicious.
• Finally, be at peace with yourself, God, and try to love everyone.

I pray that everything goes well with you. God bless you.

Motivational Monday: Self Doubt

As usual, from my Facebook status (I am starting to have a lot these days): “This is a retweet I shared about two years ago. I still feel the same as this person. I was raised to believe this and I will always carry this even I am about to draw my last breath. I also going through a period of uncertainty that reaches even before what happened over the weekend with Longaberger.

As a person, I am willing to stand by this company, but I need to be honest, I am not sure how long I am willing to do this. My first priority as an Independent Home Consultant is to take care of customer's needs. I hope the owners of this company know that. It is not what keeps them coming? New products can wait. If you cannot serve the general public with your service of provision, then maybe you should close your door for good. Yes, I am angry, and I am hurt. I may not have had many sales over the past few months with you and the reason was quite simple, I was dealing with self-doubt.

I had self-doubt in my abilities as both a consultant with a once upon a time billion dollar company and as a stationery/graphic designer/writer/crafter, trying to build a company from scratch. Why did I self-doubt? Simple, no sales, and no money to do promotions. I thought that by promoting on social media (especially my FB page) would get me sale from both Longaberger and my company, P. Lynne Designs. There were periods where I would just stare into the screen and wonder why am I doing this? I would hear the voice of God saying, "You got this", but I was not hearing it. Even when I did two projects last year for Judith Sharpe and Tiffany Thomas (which I still thank you both for believing in me), the doubt was still there. I still did not try hard enough to get the work I needed.

Two months ago, I made a decision to really get in there and push. That was when I accepted a scrapbook project from Pat Meadows that I can truly feel proud of (not that I was not proud of the other two projects from last year. I am finding my self-worth again, which is my long-winded speech of saying, self-doubt is a mood killer, a dream killer, and the devil's advocate. Do not give in.

One last thing: To all independent consultants, rather you are with Longaberger or with some other direct selling company, I decided back in 2010 to have another source of income. take those skills that you gained with the company, and use them to your advantage and have backup income. I am not saying leave direct selling, but have a secondary income, even if you have a spouse or partner. Like so many companies before Longaberger, you were told everything is fine, and then one day, you cannot contact the call center. I believe that Longaberger will return in one form or another, but now is the time to come up with a backup system. I can now understand why consultants ask to join another company. That is not what I am talking about. Use your skills as a consultant to maybe teach a class. having home parties have taught you to not be afraid of audiences. This is one example, and I am reposting this on my blog.

Never self-doubt your skills or your abilities to help others.”

It is pretty self-explanatory, this post.  It sums what I have been going through in the past few months, including why I have not been posting on a regular basis for both my blog and vlogging channel.  It comes from a quote from Twitter that I reposted in 2016 (my Facebook and Twitter accounts are linked):

Retweeted Melanie※ (@SimplyShayXO):

#ThereIsAlwaysRoomInMyLifeFor God. Even though the darkest time of my life, even when I pushed Him away, He was there. He is always there.

It is the post I just wrote that I want to focus on.  To give you a backstory, this is what transpired ever the weekend (without giving out company info because I still stand behind this company for their products):  I was told, along with other consultants and leaders to not put in any orders until further notice.  You can read into it however you want, I am not spilling tea yet until they officially declare bankruptcy, or I can go back to submitting orders for myself or other customers. You can get angry at other people without hurting the relationship, and at the moment, I am angry at owners of Longaberger.  Please note that I am also angry for and at the former owners of Longaberger. The reason:  for softening the blow of what was really going on with the company and why shield it from the sales force and the employees?  I am going to leave that question right there because the same thing was going on with Toys R Us, Sears (I was let go from two stores because I was in the dark of problems stemming from that fiasco), even my most recent former employer, Archivers. 

Most people blame Amazon and Walmart for their company’s problems, but I smell an even bigger problem, which is why I choose to stay out of company politics, but when you are messing with my money, my livelihood, you need to speak directly to me.  Longaberger owners JRJR Enterprises was not speaking to the sales force loud enough, long enough, and early enough to say there were problems.   Actually, I take that back.  I did receive an email, stating for everyone to increase their sales, but they did not say why.  I thought it was them encouraging you to increase sales, like a normal motivational talk, not a “we are losing sales” talk.

So back to the whole reason for this post.

I was thinking about my reason behind the post on Facebook, other than this post resurfaced (which is a good thing), and I was in that funky feeling.  It was the kind of feeling that you were happy but not that happy.  That is one thing that Facebook is famous for, to remind you of your post.  I am the type of person who posts what I have to say on social media and leave it at that.  A post.  Like others, I do post what makes me angry, but I have calmed down my anger over the past few months, since some people pay attention to it, and sometimes they do not.  I do not post to get a reaction anymore.  If it is inspirational I make it a point to have my Facebook friends (and Twitter and Linked-in friends since the accounts are linked) to read it.  I want to make sure that you know where I am coming from, and I do not like posting junk, which is the reason behind me not posting when I get a high score on a game.  I want people to learn and be inspired by my experience.

I want you to feel loved.

I want to solve the problem that you are having.  That is the whole reason behind P. Lynne Designs, my stationery/scrapbook company.  Let me give some examples:

• You want to capture that moment when you first went to Barbados.  You decide to go on a cruise and you decide to take a lot of pictures.  Now, you may not think that a scrapbook album is an answer to everything memorable, but it is.  You can put in more than photos.  How about that ticket stub to a benefit concert put on by Rihanna, who happened to be visiting her mom, and it was for a neighboring school that she attended when she was a child.  Or the first time you tried rum punch. How about on the Lido deck? The program from that concert? 
• You need flyers for an event
• You need an article about the on-going effects of global warming or how to make canvas wall art.
• You need wall art.

Yes, this is how I give of my talent, but I cannot give if I am constantly doubting if the client is going to love it or not.  I need to trust my instincts more.  I love the way I see things, which is with an open-mind that says that the world is more than one way.  So far, my clients have loved my work.  I get results. 

This also brings me back to you, and my takeaway from this post. 

What is your talent?  You do not have to be a good artist, singer, dancer, or speaker.  Listening can be a talent.  Listening with the intent of offering good advice can be a talent.  Chad Raider, Youtuber from GabeBabeTV is a known baby whisperer.  Every time a baby is near him, they calm down, which has worked so far on the newest member of their own family, Reagan Elizabeth.  Know this, if people turn to you because you can make the best Mac and Cheese that can beat a 100-year-old recipe, that’s talent.  If someone says that you can light up a room with your smile, that’s talent.  Talent does not always be a physical thing.  It is your mood, your attitude, your very presence.  In other words, confidence can be a talent as well.  Being modest without being overbearing is a talent.  Patience is a talent.  Find that talent, and never self-doubt it.