Who’s Modeling You?

You don’t have to be a celebrity to be a role model.  Like it or not, you are a role model to someone.  Everyday someone is observing your behavior and making mental notes of what you are doing and the results you are achieving.  It could be a co-worker, your children, your spouse, friends, the clerk in the grocery store, the kid next door, the paper boy, your daughters boyfriend, etc. etc.  The list goes on and on.  Everyone you come into contact with is observing you.

But you say ‘I am too busy to be worried about who is watching my behavior every day’.  True, life is very demanding and the world is moving faster everyday.  But, you don’t get to choose - you already are a role model.  So how do you live up to your job as  role model?

Simple.  I believe it was Zig Ziglar who said ‘don’t do or say anything that you would be ashamed to see on the front page of your newspaper’.  He went to say that ‘you should conduct your life in a manner that your mother would proud of your actions’.  Henry Ward Beecher said ‘Hold yourself responsible to a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Never excuse yourself.’  This means taking responsibility for your actions and your words – no matter how busy you are!

None of us are perfect and we will at times lose control of our emotions and do or say something that is uncharacteristic.  What I am talking about are the consistent behavior patterns that others would easily identify with you, and therefore model after you.

Think about how you want to be remembered!

- Joe Freeman