While many New Year’s resolutions such as losing weight, getting organized or expanding your horizons can be difficult to follow through on, here’s one that isn’t: be kind. All you need to do is smile and say something positive to the people you come into contact with. What you’ll find is that when you smile at people, they smile back–even people who are total strangers! The same holds true when you say something positive. And here’s the kicker: you’re the big winner in all this. If you make it a point to be kind to others, you’ll find that you’re happier, feel much better about yourself, your relationships at work and home will improve and you’ll walk a little lighter and a little taller–you’ll also find the process of being kind a great deal of fun. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start spreading some kindness. Happy New Year!
There’s a very seductive trap that people often fall into when they become successful. It goes something like this: Success eventually leads to arrogance where people become taken with themselves and their success. As a result, they slowly start to alienate the people who helped make them successful in the first place. Arrogance then leads to feelings of infallibility (I’m way too good to fail) which, in turn, leads to complacency (if things aren’t broken, why fix them?). Complacency then, sets the stage for the person’s downfall where someone eventually does come in and dethrone them which, in turn, leads to humility when the person finally realizes that their downfall was their own fault. They key to keeping this painful cycle from happening is to remain humble in spite of your success. If you do, the people who helped make you successful will see to it that you remain that way.
The above quote from actress Geena Davis says it all when it comes to living a meaningful life. Taking a risk is one of the few “no lose” situations that life has to offer–if we succeed, we’re happy and excited, and if we fail, we learn from the experience which makes it much more probable that we’ll succeed the next time around. On the other hand, if we take no risks, we stop growing and life begins to pass us by–there is no more learning and no more excitement. When I find myself in a risk averse mood, I think of the following quote from Theodore Roosevelt: “Far better is it to dare mighty things than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, for they live in that gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” It puts me back in touch with what life is all about.
Right now, nobody seems to be happy with President Obama’s proposed health care program. The doctors don’t like it because it stresses cost containment which would interfere with their individual prerogative to practice medicine the way they feel it should be practiced and it would also make it that much more difficult for them to get rich while practicing medicine. The pharmaceutical companies don’t like it because it means less profit for them. It’s the same with the hospitals. The tax payers don’t like it, because it’s going to cost them a bundle. There is, however a way to fund this expensive program that will make everyone happy-fund it with the profits from government run companies. The federal government already owns controlling interest in GM and Chrysler. Why not funnel all the profits from these two companies into the President’s health care program. The government should also get back into the banking business and funnel those profits into the health care program. It should then buy large amounts of stock in companies like Microsoft, Nordstrom, Cisco Systems, Starbuck’s, Wegmans Food Markets and funnel those profits into the President’s health care program. Pretty soon, you have enough non-tax payer money to fund a first class health care program that would make everyone happy. Citizens would have complete access to the best health care in the world; doctors would continue to maintain their independence and would be able to pursue their dreams of accumulating vast amounts of wealth. The pharmaceutical companies would continue to make money hand over fist as would the hospitals. And, all this would happen at no cost to the tax payer! What’s there not to get here?
In This Issue o Safety and Human Behavior o Say Something Good o Visit Our Website o Points To Ponder o A Little Humor o Quote of the Week
Safety and Human Behavior
…a signed permission for others…
In the very early seventies I started working with a noted psychologist from Notre Dame University to learn more about employee behavior. I was trying to figure our why we had such a rotten safety record and what we might do about it. I had been handling the investigation and settlement of employee injury claims since the late forties and “human error” seemed to be the stated cause for most injuries and it got me interested in what caused “human error.” Actually, my job with Dr. True was to write fresh humor for his lectures. I didn’t realize at that time that I was studying psychology or human behavior either. Those topics were so foreign to the railroad industry that I would have been banished from the property if that were even suspected. We were still in the stone ages in regard to the role of human behavior in regard to safety.
As I stumbled along, somehow, thanks to a brand new, highly dedicated and innovative corporate president, I was given a new job and freedom to explore my thinking. The results were quite impressive and mostly because of the efforts of others. Nevertheless, this enabled me to move about the corporate world sharing my ideas with others. Of course a lot has changed since I began my work in 1948. Just the same the term “human error” keep cropping up as the stated cause for so many employee injuries. We used to joke that the cause of most accidents is people and the cause of most people is accidents. I guess that is still true today and nothing changes. Just the words we use to describe things. Some engineers I have met believe that the way to eliminate human error is to eliminate people and recently, it appears, that a lot of CEO’s are following up on that idea for a lot of employees are being eliminated.
What I discovered along the way is that when people make personal commitments to one another and take responsibility for not just their own safety but that of their fellow workers safety, thus becoming brother’s and sister’s keepers, and when they give one another a signed permission for others to interact in a positive manner, then folks just naturally work a lot saver and you get outstanding results. Oh yes, we introduced a simple 101 hand signal to avoid a lot of confrontation and people actually started communicating. Now that might not be a whole lot for a person to figure out in just sixty-one years in the safety field but that is the best I have to offer.
Say Something Good
Commencements. My step grand daughter is graduating from high school with all sorts of honors and I attended a program held in the school gym. It lasted almost forever and the seats were hard but it was a thrill to hear of the achievements of so many students. Many of them had received impressive scholarships and awards and as I listened I started thinking about how we never hear or read about this segment of the education scene here in America. So many wonderful students accomplishing so many awesome things and all we read about online or in the papers or see on TV is that two students broke into the school and trashed two classrooms or the report on another car crash involving students. Here in America we have a situation where we can be mighty proud of the achievement of the many, however, we only hear about the few. May God bless our students and our graduates and keep them safe. May God bless our troops and keep them out of harms way and may God continue to bless America.
Points To Ponder
I guess that one of the most important things I’ve learned is that nothing is ever completely bad. Even cancer. It has made me a better person. It has given me courage and a sense of purpose I never had before. But you don’t have to do like I did…wait until you lose a leg or get some awful disease, before you take the time to find out what kind of stuff you’re really made of. You can start now. Anybody can. Terry Fox
A Little Humor
A committee is twelve people doing the work of one.
Quote of the Week
Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture. Charles Caleb Colton
