Last week I shared the first third of this article. It will produce an increase in your business and money, the bonus is that it will also bring to your life greater happiness and purpose. The two together bring Healthy Wealth©. Teaching you how to make more money is great, but that would be incomplete because that’s only one part of you. You are also physical, relational and spiritual. This three-part article speaks to all pieces.
My mom passed away on July 15thand I realized, when writing about her, that I needed to share the success secrets she’d given me. These secrets took me from being a penniless, abused mom working in a health club, to owning a company with 125 locations providing weight loss and wellness. Want to know how to build HEALTHY WEALTH? Part 1 spoke of success. This one speaks to happiness. It’s taken from the obituary I wrote.
With her family she was a display of unconditional love like none of us had ever seen before or most likely will ever see again. In crisis and in victory she had the gift of hospitality and always made you feel like you were at home in her home. A heart to serve others with grace, food and a welcoming home was at the center of her focus.
HEALTHY WEALTH Pt 10- DISPLAY UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.
Too often we give of ourselves ‘providing’ someone gives to us also. The law of reciprocity says, “What we sow, we reap.” Are you sowing what you want to reap in this area?
She married the love of her life, Bill Jones, in Indiana, on Aug. 16, 1941. At 28 years of age she became a widow, with 3 children under 5 years of age, to care for. She had no money and no driver’s license. Two years later on Feb. 15 she married my dad, Norman Elrod. They had so much fun together, dancing, laughing with friends and playing music. He brought two sons with him into our family, he followed her to Ohio when she received a promotion from Stanley Home Products, they had 2 children and she was widowed once again in 1977. She married the one she cherished and who would take care of her like no one ever had, Ovid Leonard, on July 24, 1986. They shared amazing travels and obvious love for one another. She became a widow for the third time in 2001. As of today, including spouses, grandkids, great grandkids and great-great grandkids her family had grown to 102 members.
You only had to be around her for a minute to realize that her perspective was that there is no step in the word family. There is no half, there is no in-law. If you were family, you were family, period. And you were loved unconditionally. Her door was always open to any of us who needed a place to live. And many of us did, indeed, seek refuge in her grace and live with her. We were people without a place to live, and living with her, while we were struggling so, taught us how to really live. She put food in our bellies and a pillow under our heads. She housed us, she loved us, she took care of many of our needs and she prayed with us and for us.
HEALTHY WEALTH Pt No. 11- “LOVE UNTO OTHERS THE WAY YOU’D HAVE THEM LOVE UNTO YOU.”
In other words, be careful not to put stipulations or judgments on your love. When you do that, you unknowingly put limits on the relationship. Don’t label folks ‘____’-family. Just label them family. When you do that, your relationships will have limitless amounts of love. That’s what hers had. She did everything she could to be sure folks knew they were loved. Are we doing everything we can do show folks they’re loved?
She made everyone feel like family, from friends to even strangers. She made everyone feel like they were her best friend. In the last several months of her life I began a tradition shared between just she and I. I would look her way and ask, “Do you know who you are to me?” She’d say, “I’m your mom.” I’d say, “Yes, but do you know what else you are to me?”
I would bend down in front of her, get very close, face-to-face with her, look into her eyes, hold her cheeks gently in my hands and say to her, “YOU are my favorite person,” she would reply, “You’re MY favorite person.” And the thing is— she would mean it. But she also would have meant it if she’d been saying to you. The person with her was her favorite person. It didn’t take long before she’d answer, “Do you know who you are to me,” with the words, “I am your favorite person!” I’m so blessed— my favorite person knew that she was my favorite person.
HEALTHY WEALTH Pt. No. 12- MAKE THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU FEEL LIKE THEY’RE YOU’RE FAVORITE.
Now, THIS is a great secret! So much so that it should NOT be kept a secret! Want to experience full-of-love relationships, be happy, make more money, live fully? Make everyone you’re with feel like they are the most important person in your world. Making someone feel like they are precious to you is one of those things we simply can’t give away without it being returned. Want to be loved? Love. Want to feel special? Make another person feel special. Want to be someone’s favorite? Make sure others feel they’re YOUR favorite.
I’ve decided to share more of what my mentor did to create an incredibly happy life. Want to know more about building Healthy Wealth now? Accept as my gift to you, free training videos featuring none other than my mom. Visit www.youtube.com/DonnaKrech Click Success Stories and look for “Meet My Secret Weapon.“