Sunday, January 10, 2016

Perspective Changed

I am be-bopping to work yesterday, listening to TED Talks on NPR.

Trying to inflate my brain.

The speaker was Kasim Reed, the current mayor of Atlanta and he was speaking about how your perspective can be changed and the good consequences that can result.

In 2009 he was a Senator, running to become the mayor of Atlanta. He was getting his ass kicked so he decided to knock on doors in neighborhoods.

He went to a run down neighborhood, knocked on a door (with steel bars in the window) and was greeted by Miss Davis. She let him in and he went into his campaign spiel.

Talked about the great Fortune 500 companies in Atlanta, the amazing airport, and the great restaurants and told her that if elected he would continue to make Atlanta stronger.

Reed said Miss Davis looked at him like he "was a Martian", took his hand and walked him out into her backyard.

She pointed out a bunch of young boys shooting craps in a drained pool. She pointed out a gang of guys playing music in a gazebo covered with gang graffiti, a gazebo that used to be used for family picnics.

She told Reed that she was a good cook and didn't go out to eat, but if she felt the need she would have to take a bus and did not feel safe traveling in the city.

As for the airport she told him she didn't fly.

To his credit Kasim Reed's eyes were opened that day. He realized he was looking at his city from the wrong perspective and vowed that if elected he would focus on the needs of the real backbone of the city, the real people, the working class people, the people who truly shoulder the load.

He got elected and stayed true to his vow. He re-opened a bunch of recreation centers, 90% of which had been closed for years. He re-instituted the the Atlanta Senior Citizens' Ball, although his mother made him rename it the Forever Young Ball. He has done other things for the city, working from the bottom up and improving the lives of those who needed improving the most.

Got me to thinking............................................

I was driving to work. A place I call HELL.

It is HELL for me but that is true for you as well, no? You and most of everybody else you know.

I am no longer going to poison my existence with hatred of my job. I will never love it but I can stop obsessing about it and ruining every free moment in my mind.

I will no longer whine about it because there are people - lots of them - with no jobs, with jobs that pay a lot less than mine; people who work two or three jobs and still make less than me.

I am changing my perspective.

Changing my perspective to bring about change.

I am working from the bottom up. Changing the way I think, the way I look at things, will change what I do.

I will no longer refer to the job as HELL in here. I will be mature about it.

You doubt me and I don't blame you; you have heard it all before. But it is different this time. This is 2016 and I am deep focused on fixing my brain. Re-training it, re-directing it and using it as a powerful weapon against failure to change instead of against myself.

At the end of his TED talk Kasim Reed said that Miss Davis made a mayor and changed a city.

One person who changed a perspective with huge implications and measurable positive results.

That is gigantic.

I expect no less from myself.

I am putting it all out there this year for you to judge. I will tell you when and how I succeed, I will let you know when I fail.

I am not fooling around anymore.



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