It’s Interesting the way we allow what information to shape our beliefs, our paradigms, our expectations
“Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.”
I was a teenager when I first heard that quote. And I had already heard that type of opinion many times. I was shocked to learn that it wasn’t a contemporary commentator or social leader, but that it was in fact Socrates who said it. My only child, The Soccer Goddess, graduated from Pembroke Pines Charter High School this past June, and in his address to the graduates her High School Principal, Peter Bayer, quoted some startling statistics. NULL “According to the National Center for Juvenile Justice, the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the University of Michigan, we are experiencing an incredible decrease, even historic lows in such categories as violent crimes by teens, school crimes, teen suicide, out of wedlock teen pregnancy and teen abortion. In addition, the College Board is reporting that the average SAT scores are the highest in 30 years. And, believe it or not, another recent survey found that 90 percent of teens say they “get along” with their parents and nearly 80 percent reportedly get along “very well”. He went on to say that most people, young and old, respond to these facts with doubt and disbelief. I know I found them hard to completely accept. For those of you who don’t know me, I am wild about my kid. Becoming a Mom is the best choice I ever made, and even after 18 years, I can just look at her and have my breath taken away with the wonder and awe of who she is. And for the most part, her friends have only been mildly less amazing to me. That day in June, I sat there listening to this man I had admired and worked with for the past four years and wondered what he was smoking. Easy enough in my digital life to check his sources, so I did. There were the graphs and charts, he wasn’t exaggerating. This generation is well on their way to being the next “greatest generation.” Interesting the way we allow what information to shape our beliefs, our paradigms, our expectations. What media reports combined with what isolated experiences and what expectations of my own had so shaped my beliefs that I was willing to believe that “Children today are tyrants…” in spite of my own experience to the contrary? I do have answers to those questions. I know where my listening was. I know what things happened that I chose to see as the norm rather than the exception. It was like wearing red sunglasses, cover your eyes with a pair of red lenses and you cannot see a white wall, it’s going to look red no matter what you do. Thanks to Peter Bayer, I have taken off my sunglasses when I’m looking at this generation. Now my question for you, and for myself is: What are you believing about your business? What are you seeing about this industry? What are you feeling about your level of success? What are you hearing from your upline and downline? If your answers to those questions are all supporting your own sense of growth and abundance, I say “Congratulations! Keep it goin!” If your answers are not supporting you, my suggestion is get with a good Coach, and find out what color lenses are in your sunglasses.
Downloads
The skill of being truly present and listening without agenda, and without judgment, which gifts the other person with the all too rare opportunity to show up as how and who they really are.
The skill of having fun even when— maybe especially when— working really hard.
The skills of Teamwork— not just working as part of a Team— really learning how to follow and support the leader, which turns out to be the very best way to learn how to be a leader.
And having this bundle of skills in my toolkit adds up to being magnetically attractive and a whole lot'a fun.
If ever there was a servant leader, it's Maran. "It's all good" is something she lives— whether in the chaotic aftermath of a South Florida hurricane or facing the frustrations of a seething subscriber who can't get into the site. "Take a deep breath", she says, and goes about her business of turning straw into gold.
I've been together with Maran for more than five years now. Tough and high times both. She is a rock. One of those highly polished, swirling blue Lapis lazuli ones with the word Creativity etched in platinum. Maran is all that good! JMF
- Appreciation Marketing by Maran Banta - August 1, 2009
- Leadership by Maran Banta - March 1, 2009
- Relationships by Maran Banta - February 1, 2009
