GOOD NEWS
I'm always looking for good news. I look for good news in business, in sports, in personal relationships, in hobbies. I encourage people I'm with to see news as good, I urge them to look for opportunity in events, I try to see improvement every day. It's been difficult sometimes but by and large I can find something good in whatever happens. Sometimes I have to resort to saying things could be worse to find anything good but that's still better than letting despair take hold. Finding good news has become a major focus of my life. Yet there is more to do.
To maintain the optimism I need to keep going I need to make good news, not simply sit back and wait for it. I need to feel in control of events not a passive recipient. This seems to be a general feeling: The thought that events are beyond our control is a common source of depression and defeat. We need to believe that we can control our future, that if we take the right path now it will lead to what we want in the future. When we sense that our best efforts can't or won't produce a good result, we tend to give up, to cease trying.
So what can we do to increase our feeling of control? Well, for one thing, we can become more active. When we identify deficiencies in our lives, we can take steps to correct them. Remember, one bit of good news in everyone's life is that nothing is eternal. If things aren't good right now, that doesn't mean they'll never be good. We can improve things. The steps are obvious: Identify the problem, whether business or personal, figure out what would make things better and try to take the necessary remedial steps. It's not as easy as it sounds, I know, but we must do something. It's rare that things improve on their own so sitting back to await events is a formula for failure.
Remember also that it's not necessary to fix everything at once. Small steps, persistence, working regularly to improve our lives will eventually solve our problems. And even if problems persist, the spirit of regular effort to eliminate the problems will improve our lives.
Also, we must recognize which problems are ours to solve and stop worrying about other problems, global events, things which are largely beyond our control. We can't solve all problems. We have to prioritize and work on problems we can solve. We can't stop people from trying to hurt us but we can be alert to try to avoid harm and keep them from succeeding. We can't prevent a natural disaster but we can be prepared to survive if it happens. In this way also, we can maximize our feelings of control.
Another thing to remember is that by helping others we can minimize or eliminate our problems. There's nothing more pleasing than seeing someone else succeed in solving a problem. If we can improve someone else's life, that's the best news.
Finally, we can accept success without demanding perfection. I'll write more about this next week, but it's worth emphasizing that we won't achieve perfection in our lives. We have to accept small steps leading to small successes, that taking the steps is itself a success, that steady progress will of itself be good news, will lead to good news. Look for good news and make the good news happen by doing what you can. As I often say, we can only do our best. And doing our best is enough.
11-5-01