Think About It. The Positive. An extraordinarily bright great-grandson of mine was overheard saying something that disturbed me. Only moments before, he had asked if I knew the word floccinaucinihilipilification. (Hmm. No spell-check alert). Admitting ignorance, I was told it meant nothing, or more precisely, the habit of estimating things as worthless. Soon after, he said, “I can’t ever finish my Rubik’s cube correctly.” Watching his father carefully to sense censure for my interference, I delivered a great-grandfatherly lecture.
For many years it has concerned me when people speak of failure. Radio and television commercials warn us “Don’t forget” to buy something or other. It seems to me that if we would accent the positive and eliminate the negative, our lives today and expectations of tomorrow would be more fun.
Let’s remind ourselves and others to “remember” things that will help them in the future. Just saying “don’t” and “forget” leave the wrong message for our admittedly fragile memories.Not just for seasoned citizens, but for fast-learning underdeveloped minds as well. Failure for me might be changed to a “current lack of success”. Others have said it better. Thomas Edison who allegedly failed thousands of times, was also awarded thousands of patents including that of the incandescent light bulb, now unfortunately banned by our over-protective government. The great inventor offered, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
Founder of the Virgin Group with over 400 assembled companies, billionaire magnate Richard Branson has imminent plans to take his family outside our atmosphere with his Spaceship Two rocket plane. Some well-known public figures have already purchased their ticket to ride beyond the bounds of gravity in a commercial version of the craft. Branson’s says, “Don’t be embarrassed by your failures. Learn from them and start again.”
As for “I can’t”, my long held-belief and inevitable statement upon lack of success is, “Up to now I have not been able to ……” You can be sure that only until now has Kaleb not successfully manipulated his cube to the correct conclusion. By the way, he is still trying.
It was fun and talented composer, lyricist and unpretentious singer Johnny Mercer who wrote it best. The words include Eliminate the Negative, but begin with Accentuate The Positive. Think About It.