Only Positive News

Positivity is definitely something the world can use more of.  It is so easy to get caught up in the negative messages we receive from press, friends, and associates that we lose sight of the good things in life.  We are here.  We are able to logically think, and critically analyze our world, our life, our decisions.  We can make a difference.  Leaders are not born or made, they evolve from people who learn from mistakes and take an active role in the world around them.  We, through our actions, influence others. 

Today, as you go through your day-to-day tasks, look inwardly and ask yourself, is the example you are leading with bringing more positive energy and results to the world and people around you?  If not, what can you do to change?

As Maya Angelou once said, “If you don’t like something change it.  If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”

I’m going to work to change my attitude and find more positives in a world flooded with negatives.  Care to join me?

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For 85 hours George Hood focused on nothing but pedaling his bike.  He was allowed a 5 minute break for each hour of pedaling completed.  However, other than that, he was on a mission to pedal, and pedal, and pedal some more.  What he was racing toward wasn’t really any particular location; after all, he was pedalling on a stationary bike.  What he was after, however, was a title in the Guiness Book of World Records and a successful fundraising drive for the Illinois chapter of COPS, an organization specifically designed to help the families of slain police officers.  He did both.  The title, upon proper certification by Guiness officials, will be his AND the event raised $25,000 for COPS.  Hood had about 200 people on-site to cheer him on for a job well done.  Congratulations for doing something that not only provides you a sense of satisfaction and acknowledgment, but also helps a group of deserving people.  Nice Job!

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It is easy, at times, to be wrapped up in our own little worlds.  It is easy, to remain uninterested in those that we don’t personally know or have any real connection to.  It is easy, just to keep going in the same tracks that you have walked in past years. 

It is easy, no doubt about that.  But, is it satisfying?  This year, as 2007 gets underway, I would challenge anyone and everyone to find one thing that is outside their normal scope and pursue making a difference.  There are so many worthy causes we can become a part of.  Whether you have a few hours a week that you can read to an elderly resident in a nursing home or someone confined to their own home; or perhaps, you have a few dollars left at the end of your week that you can donate to a charitable organization — it doesn’t matter.  What does matter is that you do something. 

Our world is a great place to be.  We have the power to make it even greater.  One person at a time, working together to make a difference.  Now that’s a New Year’s Resolution, we can be proud of.

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A month or so ago I told you about the “free hug” movement that had made it’s way from Australia to China.  This week the movement has made its way to Seoul, Korea where it was also met with a certain level of resistance.  Seems that the East still hasn’t learned to embrace its neighbors from the West — literally.  However, they are learning to appreciate a good supportive squeeze and slowly the resistance is lessening.  More and more people are exchanging hugs as a way of showing support to one another.  For example, Korean students are now organizing their own hugging events to offer support after exams are completed and Naver, a Korean online portal has reported that literally thousands of people have joined an online hugging community. 

Let’s face it folks we are making progress.  Not all think such progress is here to last however:  

“The free hug phenomenon can be translated as symbolic resistance against a society that is turning bleak and lonely,” Seoul National University sociology Prof. Jung Keun-sik told Stripes. “But I don’t think it will last long.”

I respectfully choose to disagree.  I think the hugging phenomenon is about more than just symbolic resistance to being lonely.  Squeezing another human being requires effort and energy.  No, hugging is about being supportive and showing compassion in a world that needs more than hugs to survive.  However, hugs are an excellent starting point and I’m more than willing to do my part.  Hugs, get your hugs!  If you want a hug, the line forms on the right. 

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In 2003, Kaziah Hancock from Manti, Utah recognized that there was a real need to give something back to the families of American soldiers killed in the line of duty.   Hancock decided that the best way she could do something was to take her talents as an oil-painter and turn them into keepsake memorials to provide to the families at no charge.  This original personal endeavor has expanded into an organization known as Project Compassion.  The project features paintings by a select group of professional artists who volunteer their talent, and who are accepted into the project baseed on professional merit and humanitarian philosophy.   The project receives between 6-8 requests per month for paintings, each of which takes approximately 2 months to complete. 

I think it’s extremely touching to see a small cohort of people with so much drive, passion and talent pour it into a project to give a grieving family a little piece of their loved one back, and perhaps maybe even a small moment of peace.  

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Find a place where you can see your reflection and take part in a little experiment for me.  It won’t take much time or even any effort on your part.  It’s easy really, but it will change your life in ways you cannot even imagine.  What do I need you to do?  Smile, yes, just smile.  Who is that powerful, magnetic person looking back in that reflection?  Is that you?  Isn’t it a great feeling?  Don’t you just feel positive energy pulsating throughout your entire body?  It’s uncanny.  It’s energizing.  It’s real.

The experiment goes a bit further, though.  Now, keep that smile in place and watch how others will react to your broad grin in much the same way.  They have to — it’s the Law of Smiling.  Positive energy spent comes back in positive energy received and so on.  Smiling is a universal non-threatening gesture, that tells people you are confident, you are friendly, you are whatever you are trying to sell about yourself when you flash that smile.  It’s better than money to guarantee your success.  Really!  Try it yourself.  Make it a habit to smile and watch how differently you are treated by those you come in contact with.  You will soon be wondering what took you so long to try it.  So go on, do it — you know you want to — SMILE!

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Today, tomorrow, next week, next year — it doesn’t matter when, really, you have to take the pledge to be There.  Where, you might ask?  There.  In your moment.  In that space of time that only you have control of.  It is time to give yourself a gift of being “There” in that moment completely.  Whether it is listening to your family, doing meditation or yoga, or closing that million dollar business deal, you really need to teach yourself to focus and give each task or interaction your undivided attention.  Each piece of your life leaves an imprint on you in the form of a memory that you will choose to cherish or let go.  Why not make sure that all of them are worth hanging on to and cherishing?  It won’t be easy but with practice and attention to every task , big or small, for the next week you will be amazed at how much differently you will see the world around you.  Things that seemed to tense-ridden will be less so.  Try it.  You have nothing to lose, and a whole lot of positive time and energy to gain. 

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Last Monday, millions of Americans watched as the New Orleans Saints ran with tears in their eyes into their newly rebuilt home.  After all the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the Saints were finally able to come back to their home field.  They performed a miraculous game that many believed that the Saints would not lose no matter who the team was.  They were able to come home and beat the Atlanta Falcons 23 to 3.  The game was only one amazing part of the night as millions of Louisianans packed the stands of the newly rebuilt Superdome.  The rebuilding of the Superdome’s roof alone was $1.5 million dollars and crews worked 24 hours a day repairing the roof.  The walls were covered in a new coat of paint and after the dome had sat in 6 feet of water for seven months after the hurricane, the Saints received a new astro turf field as well.  They never believed that they would be able to repair the dome in time for the Saint’s first home game, but the crews persevered and repaired the dome faster than any other in American history. 

Rebuilding the dome showed America and Louisianans that there was still hope.  Hope that their city could be rebuilt and that their team was ushering in a new era.  Saint’s fans in the dome and at home sat with tears in their eyes as they watched the unveiling of the new dome as well as a spectacular performance of their football team.  Fans continued to occupy the dome long after the game was over.  They cried, laughed, smiled and chanted for their team and their city.

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Pat McCormick was a four-time gold medallist in diving.  In 1984, Peter Ubberoff began sending his Olympic organizing committee members, which Pat was a part of, to local schools and corporations to speak.  Pat’s first speech was at Windling Elementary in El Puente, CA.  Afterwards, one of the teachers came to her and asked if she could help out any of the children in the school.  Pat began volunteering two mornings per week at the elementary school and began refining her process.  Pat focuses on 3 key attributes in the students: You have to Work, You have to Learn and You have to Surround Yourself with Winners.  Soon after Pat began volunteering there was a dramatic increase in better grades and kids staying in school. 

Today, Pat volunteers at the Workman High School in East LA.  These students are “at-risk” students who are struggling to graduate from high school.  Pat has been able to encourage them to stop joining gangs and stop using drugs.  Pat says that her passion of excellence comes from hardships of her own.  “My father died on skid row, and that’s the motivation I have.  I want to let everyone know if you have a dream and you believe it, you will find a way.  You have to surround yourself with winners, you have to work,” says Pat.  Today, several students have followed Pat’s guidance and have gone for the gold of high school graduation.

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Courage can sometimes be a nebulous concept to define, we know it when we see it, but to put to words what it is, sometimes eludes us.

But it hasn’t eluded Amy Fenzel-Mergott.  She’s 32, the mother of two, the coach of a high school’s girls soccer team, and she’s battling breast cancer.  But instead of wringing her hands, she’s taken a bring it on attitude.  She’s getting treatments and living life to the fullest, even through the pain.  She’s trained and competed in a triathlon, looking forward to one the following year.  She’s not letting it conquer her spirits or her resolve.

There are no pity parties, nor will there be.

While she’s not alone in the diagnosis, she stands out as an example to her team and her community of pressing on despite all odds, and reaching out to others in the process.  She’s special because she chooses to fight and not let the disease win.  We should all be so courageous in the face of hardships in our own lives, overcoming and not capitulating to the troubles.

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