The post for this week was drafted last weekend. All good, except the world kinda changed…again. We’ll let that post age a little and hope it comes out like a good wine a few weeks or months down the road.
Watched an interview with Italian doctor this morning. Her advice after being in the epicenter of COVID-19 havoc these past few weeks – act like you are positive. Not ‘happy’ positive – but positive to the virus. This changes your mindset and you become extra vigilant. Some good advice. I wish you all safety in the days ahead.
Life is not always sunshine and roses. Stuff happens. While we can’t control everything we can control our next decision and then our next and next after that.
I love the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. He tells a story of the Stockdale Paradox, the account of a prisoner of war during the Vietnam war. Jim Stockdale made it out. He did so by keeping his faith he would prevail combined with FACING THE BRUTAL FACTS.
As we continue to remember Chris in 2020, there are some strange connections with the loss of a child and a world pandemic. We can’t control everything. To get through the worst, we must face the brutal facts and take actions to get through. If those actions (decisions) we make get us closer to getting through, we must make more decisions. Decisions are power.
Yes, we must remain positive. But that might mean acting like you are positive – just like the Doctor said.
Again – all the very best to you around the globe as we make our way through these uncharted waters.
Summary from article linked above:
Finally I asked, “Who didn’t make it out?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” he said. “The optimists.”
“The optimists? I don’t understand,” I said, now completely confused given what he’d said earlier.
“The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart. This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end–-which you can never afford to lose–-with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
Be The Best. 
One reply on “Be positive?”
Randy thank you for this post. I think you are tapping into some brilliant wisdom from the Italian doctor and the survivor from the Vietnam war. I guess we need a combo of some optimism mixed with realism and whatever else you’d call that quiet determination we’ve seen in people who just don’t give up. My 14-year old son is shooting 200 foul shots a day, and practicing a variety of moves and dribbling drills in his hopes to be a significant – yes even dominant – basketball player. Chris had that determination. All the athletes at his memorial knew it. May we have the grace to keep going in the face of things we can’t control.