The Power of Optimism:
Henry Ford said: “believe you can, believe you can’t, either way your right.”
We are living in challenging times and no one has to explain that to us. What we may not know is that our viewpoint of the times determines whether we are successful or whether we shall fail.
In 1993 I was paragliding in Pacifica and fell 70 feet on my back and broke my neck. I was instantly paralyzed. I recall my first thought. “I never dreamed this would happen to me”. I became instantly engaged in a process that would require 6 months hospitalization and a physical therapy 8-hour day as I learnt how to walk again. My neck was broken at C6 and I had done permanent spinal cord injury. My future was very unknown to everyone but me.
From deep within me I found the entire experience positive. I never dreamed I would not recover. I never pictured myself in a wheel chair for the rest of my life. I just knew I had to give my all to my recovery, and in so doing I recovered most of my mobility.
I have told many people since: “The best thing that ever happened to me is that I broke my neck”. I constantly get the response that is a strange way to view your accident. Then I say, “OK, the worst thing that ever happened to me is that I broke my neck. Which way would you look at the experience given I had broken my neck?”
The power of belief is well documented. The mind can return from all types of adversity. People are incredibly powerful if they give themselves the willingness to achieve success in the face of difficult odds.
As a community of people, we are all trying to make our way through these tough times, and it is easy to just let down and give up. But in so doing we shall achieve nothing. Better to fight back. Better to hold onto the power of positive thinking, the power of belief and optimism.
During my 6 months in hospital many incidents helped me in my recovery. But undoubtedly the strongest gift was the power of friendship and the strength I received from people supporting people. That got me through the hardest times, and the bleakest nights.
Community is power. If we support each other, we can make it to the end goal, whatever we decide that is for us. But it requires people supporting people. It requires community.
Obama is the President elect because he understands community organizing. He could have taken any job upon graduation but chose to go to Chicago and made $13,000 as a community organizer. He was ridiculed by some for having such small capabilities, but the truth is the last laugh is upon his critics, because he community organized himself right into the White House. And now, he intends to community organize the USA into a full economic recovery.
I have no doubt he will succeed. Because it is not he, it is we. He constantly says so. And he is right. But he does provide the right backdrop for the “US” to make it. He appears the right leader for the right time.
I encourage all of us to community organize ourselves into a successful venture. I encourage all of us to view life positively rather than hopelessly.
