Don’t let the media’s bad attitude become your outlook on life!
Here’s how the media chose to celebrate people’s return to jobs, restaurants, doctor’s offices, barber shops and family vacations:
“Carbon emissions roaring back!”
Here’s the second headline in my “news” app today, noting that 80% of Americans over 65 have been vaccinated:
“See where older Americans still remain vulnerable!”
Here’s what analysts chose to title the record-levels of Hispanic American homeownership in U.S. history:
“Stoking the Hot Housing Market!” followed by “When is the housing market going to crash?”
When Good things - science defeating a pandemic, everyday life returning, unprecedented growth in generational wealth - are cast as crises and failures and worry -
We have a problem.
That is why I pay special attention to what feeds my self-talk. It’s not only important to give yourself permission to be positive and persistent. My self talk forms the vocabulary that immediately springs to mind when someone asks me:
How are you today?
How’s your business, the market?
How are we as friends or neighbors or citizens?
This doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges to be addressed, goals to accomplish and responsibilities to be had. But it does mean that the world is a better place than you might be led to believe and everyday we are making progress unheard of in thousands of years - or even just last month.
If you’re looking to see it.
A few years ago I was riding in an Uber with a Ukrainian immigrant driver. He told me how fortunate he felt to be in America, driving a car he owned, and working hard to make a living. “Sometimes I don’t understand my passengers who complain about everything,” he said. “I am so grateful for how much I have.”
“Don’t you think about your problems?” I asked.
“Why? That doesn’t make it easier for me to get ahead. When I came to America I was poor. Now I own three cars, all of them hybrids, and moved my mother and sister from the Ukraine to America. We own three homes on the same street. And my nephews and I drive our own businesses for a living. If I wanted to sit around thinking of my problems, I’d still be back in the old country.”
“I’m richer than anybody I know - even you,” he said looking in the rearview mirror, “because I have a good outlook on life!”
Now that’s one headline I wish everyone could read every day.