The 5 Building Blocks

1. Patience
- Patience accepts the imperfections of others and allowing someone to be imperfect.
- "When we think that we can do it, we assume that others can do it too."
- We need to learn to manage expectations in human relationships.
- Not everyone thinks/behaves exactly like you.
- Patience is being willing to listen emphatically, with a desire to understand when others talk.
- People like it when they feel understood, when their feelings are validated.

2. Kindness
- Kindness is putting others' needs before yourself simply for the sake of love.
- If you pick out the little acts of kindness, you will feel very very rich.
- Ask people things that matter to them.
- Speak kind words that build others up, not tear them down.
- Material possessions does not hold me; value the people above it.

3. Generosity
- Generosity is giving of yourself: time, energy, attention, ability and money - to others.
- Being generous with your time involves taking time out for people around having a genuine interest in their lives.
- Recognize people when they should be recognized.
- "When you get too familiar with a person, the relationship starts to kill.."
- Challenge to learn to live life outside of yourself.
- "Don't love money and use people; use money to love people."
- value rlationship above money.

"We make a living by what we earn; we make a life by what we give."
-Winston Churchill

4. Appreciation
- When you appreciate people in your life, you build the relationship.
- Start in small ways to appreciate someone; it does not have to be big.

5. Forgiveness
- Forgiveness is letting go of the past and moving on.
- Unforgiveness focuses on the past.
- When a relationship focuses on the past, it cannot progress forward because it is always looking backward.
- The strength to forgive others is in knowing that we have been forgiven much.
- Forgiveness is the oil that keeps the wheels of our relationship running smooth.
- Forgiveness does not:
- come easily
- remove the consequences of wrong doing
- immediately restore trust
- remove the effects from one's memory.
- Forgiveness simply:
- remove all barriers
- provides a platform for restoration
- opens the possibility for a better relationship in the future.

Labels: motivation, specials