Blog about Leadership

The Problem 

The mood of the United States and the World, for that matter, seems to be rather gloomy and pessimistic. Hearing the rhetoric out of Washington about pending “catastrophic” consequences if we don’t pass a nearly trillion dollar stimulus bill certainly doesn’t help. The news reports also are upsetting with record job losses, continuing declines in our economy, the loss wealth of many retirement accounts, and other effects of the recession.

With all that is wrong with the current state of the world. I want to share the Optimist Creed. I think one of the fundamental tenants of being optimistic is not about naivety or ignorance, but just the outlook. The perspective that says, I know how bad things are in the world, but for my personal outlook, I am moving beyond the forces of negativity, beyond pessimism.

Getting Back to Achievement

I am remaining hopeful that tomorrow things will be better. In time, the recession will pass and will become history like all other recession and even the Great Depression. This is not failure, but merely a learning opportunity from which we can build a better future. This is not a desolate end, but an opportunity for a new beginning.

This is an opportunity for us to pull out of the mire, gain the strength from this learning experience, and forge a better future without such an experience for another 70 or 80 years. It’s an opportunity for us to set goals that next time we will go a complete century before the next recession. It’s a goal that an entire, future generation will not experience the pain and hunger of widespread panic, but will know prosperity through a stabilized economy.

It is my recommendation that you read the Optimist Creed, memorize it even, and let the optimist in you take over. Lead in optimism, and, then, get back to achievement.

The Optimist Creed

Promise Yourself-
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

The Optimist Creed was drafted by Christian D. Larson, who lectured extensively about optimism during the time of the Great Depression.

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Its has been a little more than one year, but I have finally made it home this week.  I have been able to spend some great time with my nieces and my nephew who are all young at 1, 2, 4, 5, and 8 and children truly are the joy in life.

My oldest niece is all exited to be starting kindergarten in the fall; I hope that she will maintain that excitement for many years in school.  My sister, her mother, has been using the “big girl going to be a kindergartner” to teach my niece some the most valuable lesson in life and those lessons are important for leaders to remember as well.

Robert Fulghum wrote about the most basic tenants for leaders in his book “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten” and the tenants ring true every day of the year.

What I learned in Kindergarten:
• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don’t hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
• Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

These are so fundamental that it’s surprising how we forget this as we grow up.  Imagine today, how different our world and, even just our communities, would be if we remembered and lived what we learned in kindergarten.

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