How to help someone bounce up.

As we head into the Holiday Season, nothing gives me greater joy than thinking back on the number of very good friends who got a new lease on life and their careers this year. Some overcame serious health problems; some found new jobs after either quitting or getting unexpectedly laid off from their previous ones; and others found purpose in their lives after feeling emptiness. In other words, all of them bounced up after experiencing some type of letdown.

I remember the discussions we had when they were feeling the lowest. (i.e., the times in which reading scripture, motivational quotes, etc. just don’t pick up you.) What I do is just talk with them and don’t offer platitudes or make patronizing comments. I tell them “I know you can’t see it now or believe me, but I know a door is going to open. What you have to do is get up out of bed, get dressed, and start back knocking on doors until one opens. I’m saying this with 100% confidence because I know that you are a good person who just had something bad happen. Good people always bounce up.”  Then I stay in regular contact with them because it is during the tough times when people sadly realize that they had more associates than friends and more sympathizers than supporters.

Picking good people up when they are down is a gift that we can all give. It doesn’t cost a thing but will last a lifetime.

To all of my “Bounce Uppers”, I won’t say I told you so, I will just say I knew so. You now have a very powerful testimony to share and pick others up with.

God bless and have a great Holiday Season, James

#WednesdayWisdom

James Dallas is the author of Mastering the Challenges of Leading Change: Inspire the People and Succeed Where Others Fail and an accomplished senior executive. As president of James Dallas & Associates, he consults with and speaks to companies and organizations about managing change. He has been named one of the most powerful black men in corporate America several times in his career by Black Enterprise and Savoy magazines.