America’s Future is Up to All of Us
Back in August 2005, I wrote an open letter to America where I spoke about the move away from greatness that we’ve made in our country. We can shift the course we’ve been on these last many years. With inspiration and true leadership, we can reclaim our souls and come back to the heart of what it means to be American.
“Leadership is not a solo act, it’s a team effort.”
James Kouzes and Barry Posner in The Leadership Challenge
Fundamental changes must occur if America, as we hope she can be, as she has been in part before, is to come alive. No one individual—regardless of intellect, experience, age, race, sex, or any other “qualification”—can create this country anew. Such a transformation will happen only through the work of the millions of us who are blessed to call America home.
Barack Obama is the only candidate of either party who understands this because he is the sole contender who really wants Americans to be fully engaged. Attend any meeting of WNC for Change, the local grassroots effort to elect him as president and you’ll see plenty of evidence of how active and autonomous Obama wants us to be. Come to the local Obama for America headquarters (107 Merrimon Ave.) and see how organized and effective a citizen-driven voter registration campaign can be. The other two candidates view us merely as voters, pursuing us to the polling place, coaxing or coercing us to give them our vote before showing their true colors with rehearsed and hollow “thank yous” and the swiftest of departures.
Barack Obama is unique among those aspiring to be president because his goal is to serve and lead rather than to rule and govern. He believes, as Abraham Lincoln described in his Gettysburg Address “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Though other presidents have encouraged civic participation, Barack Obama is one of those rare individuals who understand that true power lies with the people and that “we the people” must be fully engaged beyond election day if transformational change is to take place. Those heading governments and businesses may craft and enact policies hoping to shift the direction of a country or company, but without the support and follow through of those on the ground, policies never come fully to life. By sharing responsibility with campaign staff and ordinary citizens alike, Obama is developing the leadership capacity of his followers and setting the stage for more powerful and sustainable results because success becomes everyone’s personal mission, not simply his own.
If you yearn for America at her finest—a country where your best is wanted and needed every day; where your welfare is equal to the welfare of all others; where your ideas, your voice, and your simple, consistent presence are valued for the irreplaceable gifts that they are—then Barack Obama is the only person worthy of your vote in this year’s presidential process.
Remember, however, that leadership is not the domain of a few gifted women and men, it is the responsibility of all people, not just the duty of our elected officials. If you are ready to be part of the movement that instills faith in those feeling hopeless, courage in those constrained by fear, passion in those who have lost heart, and inspiration in those without a vision, I invite you to join millions of your fellow American citizens who support Barack Obama. With Obama as president and each of us as fully committed participants in this developing democracy, America can fulfill her potential and be the country we know we can be.
Leadership that inspires
“Leadership is based on a spiritual quality; the power to inspire, the power to inspire others to follow.”
~ Vince Lombardi
I am so grateful to be alive at this day and time. Born as 1971 drew to a close, I have known history’s greatest leaders only from film, the printed page, or the stories that others tell about these amazing men and women. But now I’m privileged to be living as another remarkable leader takes his early steps.
This man is a leader akin to Gandhi, King, Mandela, Kennedy. He is the fire starter for millions around the US, helping us rekindle our own greatness and inviting us to bring our light to shine for all. Rather than telling us he’s here to take care of our every need, he reminds us that we each have a role in caring for ourselves and others — ours is a country founded “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
Yes, We Can!
Thanks to him we are remembering that we are a community, a country, a civilization. As much as we need this leader, he needs us — our destinies are interconnected, our futures arrived at by collective action. All across America people are reawakening to what IS possible, what CAN be, what WE can do, build, start, complete, provide. Thanks to this man, we are letting go of the false stories, the outmoded ideas, the tainted ways that we’ve been relying on. We know that positive change can occur AND we must take part if we want the change to come.
Join me in this worthy cause. Invest yourself in the future that’s possible. Stand up, make your voice heard, and give your gifts to our common endeavor. We have the power to create a new reality. Unite with millions of your fellow citizens in supporting Barack Obama as he seeks to serve as OUR next president. Learn more online via these links:
- Read about Barack Obama’s history
- Fact check what you see, read, and hear about Barack Obama
- Learn where Obama stands on the issues we all care about
- Find out how YOU can volunteer to help Obama’s presidential campaign
- Listen to Obama’s inspiring, rejuvenating speeches
Our collective tomorrow can be much brighter than today and our brokenness can be mended. With Barack Obama as our leader, we can make this journey…together…now…for good!
“Management is getting people to do what needs to be done. Leadership is getting people to want to do what needs to be done. Managers push. Leaders pull. Managers command. Leaders communicate.”
~ Warren Bennis
Go, Obama, go! Go, people, go! Yes, we can!!
Is the US economy a metaphor for our lives?
Downturn. Crisis. Recession. Stimulus package. Tax breaks. Pink slips. Foreclosures. Falling stock prices. Overvalued. Overpriced. Unregulated. These are some of the words being used to describe the current state of the US economy. Words you’re not likely to hear–at least in mainstream media and definitely not from politicians–are greed, lust, gluttony, foolhardy, crazy, unrealistic, unhealthy, disconnected.
Now, in no way am I saying that people deserve to lose their jobs, their homes, or their retirement savings. I know there is much hardship that many are now facing due to the shifting sands of economic fortune. I do think, however, that their are many ways in which we ourselves brought on this reality. Here are a few.
Spending more money than we have to spend. I got my first credit card my freshman year in college. Though I’ve been responsible with how I use it most of the time, I have gotten myself into debt (revolving debt that stayed with me for months) three times in my life (in 17 years of credit card use, mind you). While there are plenty of forces outside of ourselves that encourage us to spend copiously, the true fault lies at our own feet. We are the ones who choose to buy it now and pay for it later. Now we’re finding out what paying for it later can look like.
Confusing stuff with a price tag with stuff of value. Yes, the media tells us that trinkets, toys, and the telltale symbols of the “good life” are what we need, but again, we’re the ones buying that line and filling our lives with many things that ultimately have little to no real value to us. Sure there are material things I’m grateful to have and some items which I truly treasure. The problem for most of us is that rather than spending our lives building lasting value–deep friendships, memories of time shared with loved ones, meaningful work–we busy our lives traipsing after things whose value is fleeting at best.
Seeing continuous growth as the best, and only way, to live. I cringe whenever I hear people tout the many ways we can grow our economy. Is it good to have a market for our wares and demand for our products? Yes. Is it realistic or healthy to believe that growth is always good and should be a constant? No. Last I checked, unchecked growth went by another name — cancer. Life is cyclical. There are seasons of growth to be sure, and we reap our bounty at the harvest. Those times, however, are followed by months when the land is dormant and we allow the earth to regenerate herself in preparation for the next season of growing. Perhaps, living so far removed from the natural ways of life, we have forgotten that “there is a time for every purpose under heaven” and that growth was never intended to be a constant in our lives.
Being unwilling to make some of the “hard choices” in order to create what we truly want. While I don’t believe in suffering or having a mindset that we must deprive ourselves, I do also think that we’ve forgotten how to be discerning in our decision making. We’re currently working to pay off some debt we incurred last year. To do that, we shifted items in our budget to put more of our income toward elimination of the debt. So for a few months, we’ll have less to spend for entertainment or eating out, but I’m glad of it because this choice is enabling me to create something much more important — no debt.
Being afraid that less money will make us poor. I believe that one of the biggest lies in our culture is that money/material possessions equals happiness. By buying so many things and then needing money to maintain these things, we make it imperative that we must work, work, work. So addicted are we that the average US worker has less than 2 weeks vacation in a year, while our brothers and sisters to the north get nearly a month of vacation annually, and our European neighbors enjoy over one full month off from labor every calendar year. The rewards of less work include more time to use as we choose. In many countries, this time is spent savoring relationships, relaxing, and simply taking the time to live life day-to-day. I’ve rarely seen a correlation between money and happiness — in fact, after a certain point, money or material goods add no value at all to our lives.
Keep your life from becoming bankrupt of value
So here’s my advice for quick ways to add value to your life.
- Know what’s valuable to you. Is it more time for yourself? Time to cultivate new relationships? The ability to travel? Don’t let our culture or other people tell you what should be important in your own life. You make that choice.
- Start eliminating whatever doesn’t add value to your life. This might mean selling or giving away some possessions. This could look like changing your work, moving, redoing your household budget or otherwise making shifts in your choices. Again, don’t let the ideas of others overrule your own judgment.
- Be thankful for all you have. Each day remember that you’ve had enough air to keep you breathing and enough water and food to sustain your body. Once you start truly appreciating all you already have, chances are you’ll realize you need less than you once thought.
- Share what gives you value. When we generously offer the value from our lives to others, all of us become richer in the process. You can either give your valuable items away (e.g., donating your money or material goods to charity, allowing your neighbor to have food from your garden) or simply share them (e.g., loaning your favorite books and movies to friends, sharing your lawnmower with your neighbors).
- Live with the end in mind. Unless there are radical new scientific discoveries, we’ll all be leaving our bodily form some day. Envision your life at this end point. What legacy do you want to leave behind? What impact do you want your life to have had? Once you have some ideas clearly in mind, start making subtle shifts now to move toward a successfully fulfilled vision. Start putting money aside to give to a favorite charity. Give heirlooms you never use away to family or friends who will love and appreciate them now. Leave your legacy one step at a time and see how much richer every day starts to become.
If you have suggestions on how to live a rich, rewarding life, please share them in the comments section. I know your wisdom would certainly add value to this post.
Stop the catalog avalanche
Watching a recent episode of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS, we learned about CatalogChoice.org, an organization helping people who want to extricate themselves from the catalog avalanche that’s buried them and filled their mailboxes to overflowing. Similar to the “Do Not Call” service that prevents you from receiving telephone solicitation calls, CatalogChoice.org helps you reduce the clutter of catalogs crowding out the mail you really want to see in your mailbox.
Benefits of using the free service at CatalogChoice.org
- Reduce mailbox clutter and save time you spend sorting through unwanted mail.
- Help merchants lower their cost of distribution and better target their market. (Who knows, maybe they’ll pass the savings on to their customers.)
- Catalog Choice community collectively promotes the use of best practices in the direct mailing industry.
- Make a huge positive impact on our environment, by reducing energy consumption, carbon emissions, and the destroyed forests that result from the current annual production and discarding of more than 19 billion paper catalogs.
What effect do catalogs have on our environment?
- Over eight million tons of trees are consumed each year in the production of paper catalogs.
- Nearly half of the planet’s original forest cover is gone today. Forests have effectively disappeared in 25 countries, and another 29 have lost more than 90% of their forest cover.
- Deforestation contributes between 20% and 25% of all carbon pollution, causing global climate change.
- More than one billion people living in extreme poverty around the world depend on forests for their livelihoods.
- There are other significant environmental impacts from the catalog cycle. The production and disposal of direct mail alone consumes more energy than three million cars.
- The manufacturing, distribution, collection and disposal of catalogs generates global warming gases as well as air and water pollution. Reducing the number of unwanted catalogs that are mailed will help the environment.
Facts above come directly from CatalogChoice.org website.
Remember, if you’re truly wanting to reduce the amount of junk mail you receive, get your name on the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service which can significantly decrease the amount of national advertising mail you receive. You can also opt out of pre-screened credit card and insurance offers by using OptOutPreScreen.com or calling 1-888-567-8688.
Open letter to America
I wrote this “letter to America” back in August of 2005 and have been feeling much of these same sentiments again. I share this letter with you–fellow Americans and fellow world citizens–and invite you to respond. What are you feeling? What most concerns your heart? What are you noticing in your lives and communities? What ideas do you have that could set us on a new course of action? What are you hoping and praying for? What is your vision of a bright future for all?
Dear America,I’m hurting and I think you are too. There was once a time when our brothers and sisters of the world looked upon us with a smile in their eyes and appreciation in their hearts. We, though always bearing human frailties and shortcomings, were compassionate, helpful, and generous with our great gifts. We spoke openly, plainly, and lovingly in conversations—with those whom we understood and those who seemed foreign to us. We reached out our hands to embrace, help, heal—both nearby and far away. We looked for ways to be of service for the largest number, and believed in the abundance of our planet. We took care to share our place at the table, taking only the room that we truly needed for ourselves. This American way reflected the best that is present in each and every one of us, even at this very moment.
I fear that we’ve now lost our hold on that brilliance in our souls. Though still generous, helpful and compassionate, we spend much of our life in ways that bring more darkness to the world than light. Out of our true pain and losses, we’ve scrambled for solace, which seems far away like the pinnacle of a mountain peak at whose base we stand. In this dash to recover our brighter selves we’ve let fear drive us to act in ways that do not become us. We’ve allowed our fellow citizens to commit horrendous acts in our names. We’ve enclosed our hearts in barbed wire and brittle stone and forgotten the pain we tend to inflict when we act out of our anger and fear. We’ve shunned our questioning brothers and sisters and sought company only of those who pat our backs and keep quiet about misgivings they have. We’ve traded our place at the table with others for a spot in the corner that feels more distant by the day.
I want something different for us. I pray for something different. I believe that you too want something different, for I believe that I am both the reaper and sower, both creator and destroyer, both citizen and foreigner, both you and me. We contain both darkness and light and cannot truly separate ourselves from one another. While accepting that I/we will still wound and spread darkness at times, I ask for us all to step boldly backwards from the precipice that we’re approaching. We have tremendous potential as a creative, intuitive, passionate, and wise species. We are needed by our brothers and sisters and our finned, furred, and feathered fellow planetary dwellers. This is a time to reclaim our inner brilliance and let it shine a new path for us to walk. We can lead ourselves from the darkness we’ve been creating.
Have compassion for yourselves and forgive yourself for the unloving acts you’ve done. Open your heart to those who confound you and forgive them for the unloving acts they’ve committed. Create this space of healing to open up in us once again. Let us all come back to the table. And let all humanity work together to heal the wounds we’ve inflicted and received.
Shonnie Lavender
(originally written and shared via email on August 24, 2005)
Are you too responsible?
Most of the coaching clients I’ve worked with have one of two challenges with responsibility. See which of these choices mirrors the way you do your life.
- They make others responsible for their own well being. I recognize these clients because they say things like, “She made me so angry,” or “He likes to hurt my feelings.”
- They believe that they are responsible for others’ well being. These clients highlight this belief with such phrases as, “I don’t want to hurt her feelings,” or “I have to be careful of what I say around him otherwise he’ll get mad.”
Either choice actually does a disservice to all parties involved. The first paints us as the victim and another person as our attacker/adversary. The second burdens us with being “at fault” for whatever happens. Stop taking either extreme. Instead, own responsibility for your life and all your choices–everything you choose to think, feel, say, and do; AND stop taking responsibility for others’ lives and all their choices–everything they choose to think, feel, say, and do.
“Learning to assume total responsibility for your life is no small task. Keep reminding yourself that you are it. No one else is responsible for your happiness, fulfillment, satisfaction, competence, health, or life situation but you.”
~ Kevin Cashman“In the end, the only person who can be the boss of anyone is himself or herself.”
~ Betty Healey
Concern, influence, or commitment? A look at Stephen Covey’s “circles”
In Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People he writes about two circles which contain our lives,
the Circle of Concern and the Circle of Influence.
- Circle of Concern — encompassing all the things we care about; ranges from our personal concerns (health, career, relationships, etc.) to our global concerns (global warming, war, recession, etc.)
- Circle of Influence — includes the things we have the power to affect; this circle is smaller than the Circle of Concern
The book goes on to show its readers how to be proactive and affect change by focusing their energies in their Circle of Influence.
The problems with Covey’s Circles of Concern and Influence
We undercut our power and mistakenly place things outside our Circle of Influence
“The problems all of us face fall in one of three areas: direct control (problems involving our own behavior); indirect control (problems involving other people’s behavior); or no control (problems we can do nothing about, such as our past, or situational realities).”
~ Stephen R. Covey
We have the tendency to underestimate our capacity to influence life, effectively placing things in our Circle of Concern rather than in our Circle of Influence. For instance, because we can’t (most likely) solve global warming individually, we may abdicate the power we do have saying, “That’s too big of a problem. I’m just one person. I can’t change it.” The truth, however, is that we can take action that does affect global warming, even if it doesn’t eliminate it. Notice where you’re unconsciously giving up your power to affect change by lumping issues into that place “out there” where you think you have no control. Then choose to take whatever actions you can to use your power as effectively as possible.
We fail to focus more intentionally even within our Circle of Influence
“The proactive approach is to change from the inside-out; to be different, and by being different to effect positive change in what’s out there — I can be more resourceful, I can be more diligent, I can be a more creative, I can be more cooperative.”
~ Stephen R. Covey
The challenge in the Circle of Influence is to focus our energies, efforts, and power for the greatest effect. Even when we admit that we have more potential to influence life, that potential can go unfulfilled when we don’t concentrate sufficiently. Covey writes, “At the very heart of our Circle of Influence is our ability to make and keep commitments and promises.” I
agree. In fact, I see a third circle that moves as your focus changes. This Circle of Commitment represents the area within your Circle of Influence where you are intentionally putting your time and energy (whether you do so for 10 minutes or the next year). This circle symbolizes the difference between the statements “I can” and “I will.” We each “can” do many things, yet only when we focus “will” we accomplish what we envision. Notice where you are not fully committing to the things you can do. Make conscious choices to follow though on your desires with action.
Your attitude determines your results
Most people seem to think that their problems are someone else’s fault and that creating the life they want for themselves is dependent on other people (or other situations) being different than they are. Such thinking is simply wrong, false, faulty, and disempowering. What we experience in our life is of our own creation. Even when other people are involved, what is created could not come into existence without our involvement.
As a coach, I have the privilege of helping my clients turn around situations they dislike, improve relationships that have weighed them down, and make changes to enhance their lives in numerous ways. One of the first places I start with nearly all of my clients is their mindset, attitude, or outlook. Most people are unaware of the power of their thoughts and the way they talk about the world around them. Somehow, even in this modern day and age, many seem surprised to learn that the results they get in life start out as thoughts, beliefs, and ideas we hold in our mind.
When my clients start using their mental capacity in a more conscious, intentional way, there are miraculous changes that begin taking place (dramatic increases in financial wealth; significant decreases in stress, worry, and physical woes; greater happiness and deeper connections with loved ones; strengthened self-esteem and self-confidence; the list goes on).
Three simple ways to coach yourself to greatness in life
- Observe your thoughts. Listen to your words. Pay attention to your reactions to events and people around you.
- Replace ANY thought, word, or attitude that weighs you down with a thought, word, or attitude that frees you up.
- Tell the truth, yet do so in a way that inspires you (and those around you).
It’s as simple as that to plant the seeds of success. When you change what you plant–your thoughts, beliefs, and attitude–what you grow changes too.
Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.
~ Buddha
What has happened for you when you’ve shifted your mindset or altered your attitude?
