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My best friend, Jodi, is a smart cookie. She teaches high school students and is the mother of two boys. With all that going, she went back to school to get her Master’s in Education. We recently attended her graduation party.

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I admire her for being able to juggle so many things at once! I’ll bet she needs to catch up on some sleep!

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I'm so proud of her. She definitely sacrificed to achieve a new level of success in her career with all she had on her plate. That's why I call her "Wonder Woman"!

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I noticed her flying around in the sky … now I get it. She was in her invisible plane, huh?

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Jodi's mom, Linda, wanted to do something special for Jodi. So Linda planned a family party with a few surprises. I was one of those! But Linda didn’t have my phone number and she didn’t want to raise Jodi’s suspicions.

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So Linda enlisted the help of Jodi's oldest son, Collin. He's only eight-years old, but was smart enough to look up the phone numbers on Jodi's cell phone when she was taking a shower!

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Ah, kids these days! Would you be able to figure that out, George?

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I’d like to think that I could! So last weekend, when we walked in, Jodi was talking with a family member. She looked over and saw us but didn’t really respond. She looked away and then looked back again! She was so surprised – shocked, even – to see you, Mary-Lynn.

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Well, we shed some tears because it had been awhile since we had seen each other. Then we spent the day with her – getting to know her family and friends.

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We relay this story because there’s something really cool about celebrating the success of others. It can inspire you to bigger success in your own life. This works in four ways:

By celebrating, we acknowledge
When we celebrate the accomplishments of others, we remember to acknowledge our own achievements. It’s easy to forget to do this but it’s necessary to keep achieving every loftier goals.

Celebration sparks innovation
As the saying goes, “Success breeds success.” We are often inspired and encouraged to go for what we want when we see other people getting what they want.

Appreciate to be appreciated
When you appreciate the hard work and efforts of others, you're more likely to appreciate the hard work and efforts you put into your success.

Commemorate to remember
We remember achievements that are marked with special occasions. From mini-celebrations to full-blown parties, it is important to celebrate the accomplishments we make along our journey to bigg success!

So let's celebrate an accomplishment of yours! Will you share something that you’ve accomplished recently? Leave a comment below, call us at 888.455.BIGG (2444) or e-mail us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com.

Thanks so much for reading our post today. Please join us next time when we’ll talk about behaviors that cost money. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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(Image in today's post by jamison)

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He’s received accolades from across the country, including Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York and two Presidents – President Bush who was the President at the time this happened and now President Obama who invited Sully, as his friends call him, to the Inaugural Ceremony.

The story is fascinating. We heard over and over again how calm and collected he was. His coolness kept the passengers calm and collected too.

What makes someone a hero?

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission defines a hero as “a civilian who voluntarily risks his or her own life to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the life of another person.”

That definition fits the mission of their organization, but is it expansive enough?

We turned to Merriam Webster. Two of their definitions of a hero stand out:

• a person admired for his or her noble achievements

• someone who shows great courage

We crafted our own definition:

It is a gift, not a sacrifice (although it may involve sacrifice) in the mind of the hero. It is the opposite of narcissism, but it is definitely not martyrdom.

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3 steps to heroism

Do you want to be a hero? We thought about this and it seems to us that becoming a hero is a three-step process:

Heroism starts with an attitude
Almost all of us think we have a duty to prevent harm to others as long as it doesn’t cost us too much. A hero expands upon that attitude. They feel a duty to serve others – to do good – whether or not it costs them something. 

It continues with preparation
This sense of a bigger duty drives them to preparation. They have a drive to be ready when the time comes.

Going back to Sully … as the pilot of a plane, he knew at some point there might be a crisis. So he gave a great deal of his free time studying everything situation he might encounter. It was his duty to be as fully prepared as possible should a crisis arise.

It completes itself with an action
The act of a hero is the manifestation of an underlying attitude. The success of that act depends on the preparation for it.

Sully had to respond because it was his duty. But his response didn’t start when the birds knocked both engines out of his plane. It began years earlier when he began studying flying.

So when the situation arose, he was ready because he felt a sense of duty and he had prepared.

Heroes, heroes everywhere
Heroism doesn’t always show itself in actions that make the news. There are heroes all around us. That’s what we’re going to talk about in our next two posts. Next time, we’ll discuss the hero behind the hero.

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Related posts

Crisis Creates Opportunity for Great Leaders

“Any man can be a father, it takes someone special to be a dad.”
 - Author unknown

Here are three things we each admire about our dads:

Mary-Lynn

Dad’s love for my mom.
Toward the end of her life, mom was very sick. Dad would go to work, drive to the hospital (which was about 45 minutes away) to be with mom after work, and then go home and get ready to go back to work. Dad was always there for mom.

Dad gives respects and gets it in return.
Before he retired, he worked for the Department of Corrections, as a prison guard and then a Captain. Dad was respected by his co-workers. He was also respected by the prisoners. When there was an issue with an inmate, dad was often the one who they called in to calm things down.

Dad encouraged me, but let me make my own mistakes.
I remember one time I was hanging out with a crowd that wasn’t exactly a group of high-achievers. I finally realized that I needed to move on from this group. I discussed it with my dad, who told me he was proud of my decision. Then he said,

“You can’t fly like an eagle if you hang with turkeys.”

George

Dad’s love of family time.
I remember sitting in the living room with dad. The rest of the family was dispersed throughout their house. I can still see dad sitting in his recliner with that “cat that got the mouse grin on his face.” He said, “I just love it when the whole family is together.”

Dad’s pride in his workmanship.
My dad was a bricklayer. I worked for him when I was in high school. By noon one day, we were almost finished with one particular job. He decided to break for lunch. When we came back, dad spotted a brick that he said was “upside down.” It was the second brick he had laid that morning. Dad ripped them all out and started over.

Dad gave everything he had to everything he did.
He expected the same from me. One day, he was pitching the baseball to me. He got frustrated because I wasn’t hitting the ball like he knew I could.

“Swing like you mean it,” he said.

Well, on his next pitch, I did just that. The ball rocketed right back at him, hit him on his shin, and knocked his feet right out from under him.

As he got up, he looked at me and said, “Now, that’s what I’m talking about.”

George’s unforgettable breakfast with his dad
One Monday morning, I walked into my office at about 7:30. We were coming off our busiest month of the year. I had been away from the office a lot and was excited about getting caught up in the office.

Within a few minutes, my dad dropped by and said that he had a meeting at 9 and wondered if I’d like to grab some breakfast before then.

I told him I had so much work to catch up on … that I better pass. He said, “Okay.” and asked if he could use my copier. I said, “Sure” and started working, but this little voice in my head said,

“Why in the world can’t you take the time to go have breakfast with your dad?”

So I went up and said, “Hey, dad, I will take you up on that breakfast offer.” That made him happy. We went out to breakfast and I don’t remember another thing about it.

But that was the last time I saw my dad before he passed away. I’m so glad that I took the opportunity that was made available to me. 

So tell us … what do you admire about your dad? Share your dadmirations by leaving a Comment below.

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(Image by vivechugh)