0216B: A Can-Do Attitude


In our family, we were raised to be winners. Failure was not an option really and winning meant being #1 and nothing else. It's a small wonder that this did not result in us learning to cut corners or cheat in anyway. In many ways, I suppose you could argue that the goal was perfection, or at the very least excellence in whatever you do.

Thus we were all pretty convinced that we were awesome. And while I'm sure that's still true, there were probably times we weren't, but the general sense of motivation and will carried us through our various stumbles in life. We may not have always been perfect, but we did pretty well for ourselves. And that kind of support and motivation helped us siblings better figure out what we're good at, even if it wasn't always what mom expected.

Now that I'm relatively older, it's easy to look at people and wonder what happened to them to result in them being the way they are. You have a lot of people who often sound defeatist or seems resigned to mediocrity - things that our family taught us never to accept for ourselves. We were raised to think we're great and meant to do great things. And thus we deserved only the best - for as long as we put in the work. This was more about stressing how hard work pays off and not about creating a sense of entitlement in a bunch of kids.

So when I see people who aren't applying themselves fully or think they don't deserve their happiness or achievements, I balk a little and feel the urge to wave a red flag in their faces and spur them into action. There's a part of me that wants to shout and scream and ask them why they're allowing themselves to have such sucky lives when the power to turn things around really rests on their shoulders. Sure, a lot of times my siblings and I tend to fake it until we make it, but because we're determined to find a way to make things work and we're convinced that we can turn almost anything around, a lot of times we do just that.

In that regard maybe we're more like problem solves and not necessarily just achievers. We're able to look at the status quo and imagine our way to something better and then we move forward. We'll sometimes bring other people along with us but a lot of times we just bull rush through and wait and see what lies on the other side. At least we tried to do something. At least we tried to make a difference.

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