“What do you do for a living?” the lady asked me.  

“That’s always a difficult question for me to answer,” I thought to myself.  ”By training, I am a workforce and career development professional.  In practice, I spend most of my time teaching other workforce and career development professionals how to do their jobs better.  But I am also a cartoonist.  And did I say, I am an ordained pastor also?”

I always have trouble answering that question.  I decided to tell the lady, “I am an encourager.”

“What?” she said.  ”You get paid to encourage people?”

“Not exactly,” I responded.  ”I help people with their careers.  But I have found that one of the most important services I can provide is to offer a word of encouragement.”

This lady looked at me with a very confused expression.  I was trying to decide whether she thought I was crazy or if she wanted a job like that for herself.

“I have found that most people are on the way somewhere whether they plan to be or not,” I went on to explain to her.  ”If they have enough time, they will find out who they are and where they are going and even — how they will get there,” I said.  ”What they seem to need more than anything else is fuel for the journey.”

“Where did you study that?” she asked.  ”I mean,” she stammered, “how did you get your credentials?”

“In workforce and career development?” I countered.  ”Or in encouragement?”

“The last thing,” she replied, almost as if she couldn’t bring herself to say the word.

“Setback U,” I responded jokingly.  ”No,” I told her, “I don’t think any of the big schools are teaching this one yet.  It’s not a rule or a program or anything like that,” I said.  ”It’s just something I figured out over the years.  But I’ll tell you the truth,” I continued.  ”If you really want to make a difference in someone’s life, the most direct route is encouragement.”

The lady thanked me and left before I told her the best part.  If she had stayed a bit longer, I would have said …

• Success requires transformation.
• Education mostly provides information.
• Inspiration is the fuel for transformation.
• And inspiration is born out of encouragement.

Someone once told me that a BTU (British Thermol Unit) is the amount of energy required to change one pound of water one degree.  I can’t tell you for sure if that is a correct scientific definition, but it’s good enough to make my point.  

You can change a pound of water one degree at a time all day long using just one BTU at a time.  But along the spectrum of temperatures, there are two points — when water changes to ice and when water changes to steam — when this is no longer true.  When you are changing states — from water to ice or from water to steam — even though this also happens with a one degree change, for a brief moment in time, it requires a whole lot more energy for transformation than for mere temperature change.  And that’s the way it is with our customers, clients, and students too.

Here’s the point, and I will close.  When real change (something more than a change in personal temperature) is required in another person’s life, you can’t get there with the same old “apply another BTU” service strategy.  You have to bring a lot more energy for a brief moment in time to see a lasting change in that person’s situation.  Information alone never brings about transformation.  Nothing less than inspiration is required for this to take place.

Do you want to introduce a service into your program that will really make a lasting difference?  Try the service of encouragement.  Encouragement is truly the most powerful service in any workforce and career development program!  And it’s something you can do without having to acquire any additional credentials.