Three Lessons Learned

Thirty years ago today, the heights of human imagination had a tremendous shock with the loss of the Challenger.  Yet in the days and weeks following, there was a resounding consensus to push forward and onward.

The experts involved did a retrospective analysis of what went wrong and how they could improve moving forward - and that took about three years.  They took the time needed in order to see what precipitated failures in the project, trying to understand what went wrong and to prevent those errors in the next generation of equipment.

People not only remember this event because it was the first fatalities during a launch, but also it was the first mission for a civilian - a teacher, who was brave enough to show her students what you could do with a little effort and a lot of dreaming.  The catastrophe changed the culture of one of the most amazing endeavors the world has ever known - and made the quest for space even better as well as catapulted other projects, like the Hubble Telescope or the New Horizons spacecraft.

Reviews of seventy-three seconds were essential to reframing the next steps.  However, there was a limited timeframe in which they looked backward, and it was all focused on how to move forward.  And while we may now think back on it, we have healed and take new steps toward new goals with improved tools.

You can take any tragedy and apply three lessons to your life, because life is short enough to not squander blessings, family and friends because you are doing what you don't want to do.  When you focus on the good in your world, more good will come - and that's the best lesson of all from three decades past a devastating national event.

- Quit looking at what you don't have or what you have lost.

- If you aren't putting demands on yourself, you aren't growing.

- Focus on where you want to be and what you love in life.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/01/28/weve-lost-em-god-bless-em-what-it-was-like-to-witness-the-challenger-disaster/

Choose Your Attitude

There's a winter song, In the Bleak Midwinter, that describes the cold short days with beautiful similes such as "earth stood hard as iron" and "water like a stone".  The melody floats and carries lightly on the air while the harmonies support it throughout the song - sometimes in perfect thirds, sometimes with dissonance.

But if you only judge a song by its title, you'd never hear it.  You would focus on the bleak and turn away, thinking enough of winter as there's no joy in the cold or snow.  If you turn away from this because of one word out of four, it isn't hard to imagine the focus you place on other things, various events, or the viewpoint you employ every day.

You would be missing something pleasant and enjoyable - and if you do this for a song, think of all the other things that you miss.  You set the stage for your own path.  Arguably, some believe we are predestined while others say choosing our direction is possible.  Even if we are predestined, choosing your attitude will improve the travel toward your own greatness... and the others around you will be very appreciative, too.

Just look at this panda (below) enjoying the time midwinter, creatively figuring out a way to play.  The panda knows it won't escape the snow, and likely realizes it won't escape it's enclosure.  But choosing to enjoy what's before it gives it a much happier existence than moping around huddled in a corner waiting for spring.

Develop your focus on happier things, and you'll be able to begin see yourself as halfway through a winter period rather than immersed in the bleak surroundings.  With the market fluctuations and businesses changing all around us, we need to shift our perceptions - something we can control - rather than expecting to impact the many other variables that surround us.

http://mashable.com/2016/01/15/toronto-zoo-panda-plays-in-snow/#doJlkQ7OfGqD 

Paying It Forward

It would be a leading question to ask if anyone has ever helped you.  Of course they have.  But when was the last time you really thought about someone who helped you?

What's the first memory of a person stepping up to assist you - was it memories in childhood or a more recent memory in a workplace?  Timing makes a difference.  We are conditioned to jump to conclusion that something is negative, that the years that have past always mean something bad. Not true!

If you immediately were whisked back to your youth, you have a strong connection to values, which were instilled by your family, and your family is important to you.  They shape your life and the things that you do every day.  

Conversely, if a more recent work situation came to mind, it shows that you have built a strong community where you landed after school. Strong relationships made a lasting impact as you were promoted in your profession.  The work you do is important to you.

By reviewing the things that are deeply important to you on a more regular basis, you can make sure you "walk the walk."  Be it formal mentoring of a recent graduate, taking a single opportunity to help a neighbor in a snowstorm, volunteering on a regular basis for a non-profit, or dreaming big and putting into action a project like the vision for veterans below, you can be kind - exponentially - and be the change you want to see in the world.

When we take these ideas to the big picture in our community, we realize the beauty of what's created by seeing everything come together; we better see that people aren't all the same color, shape and size (as in the photo above).  We can make the whole better by helping the individual pieces.

Notice the title of this post is composed using an action verb - Paying.   Helping should not be a one-stop trip, but an ongoing process.  The approaching weekend is the "official" Pay It Forward weekend, starting on Friday and concluding Sunday evening.  But why let someone else put limits on your time?  Decide for yourself how much you owe to others for helping you, and continue paying it forward with interest.

http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2016/01/veterans_housing_new_orleans_b.html 

New Year, Renewed Ideas

The new year brings new ideas - today has been called Epiphany in Christianity, which also means revelation in secular terms.

Have you considered, though, that the most successful resolutions harken back to "old" ideas that we simply have forgotten?  This is the time of year that - already - people drift from their new resolutions of just a week ago that were to create a "new" self.  They want to make changes to this or that, and appear to others better than we ever were.

But what happened to your childhood dreams?  Youth is a time when there are no constraints on imagination, on how high you could fly, on what you could do, or where you would go.  No challenge was too great to too small.  Slowly, outside ideas and expectations changed who you thought you could become.

You could battle the world with your imagination suddenly was no longer as palatable.  Conforming started to happen and your environment changed as your outlook changed.  It was better suited to meet other's expectations rather than your own.  You became comfortable where you were.

Well, stop it!  Say yes to a new challenge this year, big or small - it expands your horizons.  Perhaps it will refresh and renew your childhood dreams.  Find comfort in uncertainty as you broaden your exposure to new ideas.  Enjoy the moment, and feel the freedom renewed as though you were a child again.    

Take your former temporary happy moments and make a permanent positive mark in your life -  follow your passions rather than just chasing a paycheck.  Make this year about you and renew the ideas that once fueled your dreams. 

Even a small step like this could make your heart warmer, and remind you of great days that can come ahead.  http://www.buzzfeed.com/javiermoreno/this-cafe-opens-its-doors-to-let-stray-dogs-sleep-inside-dur#.ptezlAl1x