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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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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This has been my mantra for the 22 years I have been working to get my college diploma.  It is never too late.  This past week, my family agreed as they watched me graduate.  It was a great feeling to have finally accomplished such a big goal. 

I read this week of a 100 year old man, Marvin L. “Hub” Northen, that also received his diploma from Baylor University.  The man had left the university during the Great Depression  because he needed to work to help care for his family.  When he left, he was one chemistry credit shy of graduation and somehow never made it back to finish the degree.  The school decided that the diploma was in order. 

The Associated Press reported that, “According to Glenn Hilburn, the retired chair of Baylor’s religion department, Northen has been participating in a class that can be substituted for the Chemistry 101 class he never took.

‘He’s passed this substitute class with a grade of A-plus without even knowing it,’ Hilburn said. ‘It’s Life 101. He’s mastered that course and mastered it well.’”

Congratulations Mr. Northen on a job well done!  Without even realizing it, you have also proven that it is never too late.

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When Austin was age 9, all he wanted to do was make his schools’ basketball team.  He didn’t make it.  So, he decided to learn more about where his penpal lived instead.  What he found was startling. Austin learned that as a result of the AIDs epidemic in Africa about 15 million children had been orphaned.  Not knowing exactly what he could do, Austin put together what he called a hoop-a-thon (like a walk-a-thon but it involves shooting free thows instead) on World AIDs day.  That day, Austin shot 2,057 free throws to represent the 2,057 kids who would be orphaned during the period of time that Austin would be in school.  He took pledges from the community and when it was all said and done, Austin’s first attempt at fund raising raised $3,000 which he then donated to World Vision to help take care of orphaned children.  

That was three years ago.  Each year this program has continued to grow as other children (and adults) have taken their shot at the freethrow lines.  The project has become a national movement and this year Austin hoped to do something much bigger — in that he wanted to help build a school so that the children would have a chance to improve their lives.  As of last week, Austin and his organization, www.hoopsofhope.org, raised $100,000.  Working again in conjunction with World Vision, Austin was more than happy to announce that a schedule has been approved to build a new school in Zambia this spring.   

It only goes to prove that no one is too young to make a difference.  

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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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Apparently there is a scientific method to being happier. Turns out that if you reflect on your day before you go to bed, and do it a particular way, you have better dreams, sleep better, and generally feel happier.

The key? Reflecting on three positive things that happened during the day and figuring out why they happened. Analyze what went right, the experts say, and you create more of it, both mentally and physically.

Sounds good to me.

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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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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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Mike McCoy is not just any sheriff.  He is a sheriff with a kind heart and a lot of endurance.  This Peoria, Illinois sheriff runs for the kids at the St. Jude Hospital in Memphis.  McCoy says that he runs for them because they can’t.  McCoy began staging runs in 1982.  Back then their goal was $25,000 and they were unable to meet it.  Today, their goal is $1 million and they should top it in pledges and donations. 

McCoy has always said that nothing would keep him from running for the kids.  However, this year McCoy’s pledge was tested when he was hit by a truck in January.  The truck hit both him and another runner shattering McCoy’s pelvis and almost killing him.  The doctors believed that he would never be able to run again but McCoy wasn’t going to let that happen.  He may be slower than he was in the past, but he is more motivated than ever.  He believes that he has been given a second chance for the children he dearly loves and cares for.

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