Thursday, March 01, 2007

Pressing the "Easy" Button

As I'm thinking about the future, I recall those Staples Business Depot commercials where a person presents a difficult problem and another person offers them the "easy" button to press. Of course I get the "tongue in cheek" and I love recalling this commercial to my co-workers and students that I teach when they come to me with their difficulties.

One thing is for sure about the future - it doesn't come with the simple push of the "easy" button! If we want success in the future [whatever it may be: in relationships, in our business, in our personal endeavors] it will demand hard work. Like anything in this life, good things come to those who role up their sleeves and make it happen. Its clear that we've been given a large degree of control in our western society over our own future. We grumble about our politicians and about high gas prices but compared to the rest of the world, we enjoy a considerable amount of freedom that other don't have. I think with such a privilege comes responsibility.

I know I sound heavy, but realistically too many things in our present life are taken far too lightly and if we want a bright future we need to step up to the plate and work toward it. One very effective way of doing so is to work with others toward common goals for the benefit of society. We "western" people have the ability to affect change not only in our own "neck of the woods" but also around the world. We've been reminded by Al Gore that our environmental behaviour [both good and bad] does affect the rest of the world. I'm glad people like him are waking us up [some of you may have liked the Oscar performance of the song] to the need for us to be serious about our actions and be much more intentional about how we are going to live and what we will focus on today for the sake of tomorrow.

A bright future does not happen overnight. We need to realize that the freedom and productivity that we presently enjoy in our world comes at the price of those who invested into our future a long time ago. These were people who fought insurmountable battles so that we could enjoy what we do today. My grandfather always reminds me that we were born 'in the flowers.' By reminding me, I understand what he wants me to realize: that his early life was no where near as easy as mine and that his generation paid a great price [sacrifici] so that we could be born among "the flowers."

I think its high time we stop the nonense about looking for an "easy" way out and set our minds and hearts together to build the future so that others [our children - the next generation] can enjoy the world we purposely built for them. Just for fun - stop by a Staples store and find the aisle where they sell the "easy" button. Go ahead and press it and then see what happens? I don't think you'll be surprised at the results.