The Employers' Association

The Employers’ Association (TEA) is a not-for-profit employers’ association, formed in 1939, with offices in Grand Rapids serving the West Michigan employer community. We help more than 600 member companies maximize employee productivity and minimize employer liability through human resources and management advice, training, survey data, and consulting services.

TEA is in the business of helping people. This blog is intended to address human issues, concerns and the things that impact people - be they self-perpetuated or externally imposed. Feel free to respond to the thoughts presented here, for without each other, we are nothing!

Friday, January 13, 2012

WHY NOT?


One should never allow the apparent unreasonableness of a course of action keep him or her from attempting its completion. We should accept the fact that ANYTHING is possible rather wasting time and effort convincing ourselves to accept defeat before reaching for its alternative. The measure of a solution is in its practical and economic feasibility, not its conventional wisdom or ease of accomplishment.

One cannot be lost if they do not know (nor care) where they are going. One can never fail if they have no plans to succeed. One will never taste disappointment if they have no desire to feast upon success. When we have no destination in mind, we will never reach the end of our journey, for when we do not know what “the end” looks like, we will never know to stop once we have arrived. In order to accomplish anything in life, one must accept the reality that SOMETHING is going to happen regardless of their personal involvement. To thrive, a person must dream of things not yet attained and pursue them until they become reality. To succeed, he or she must be willing to invest energy into bringing their dreams to fruition!

Identifying a solution by starting at the desired result and working backwards can help focus efforts and energies towards the resolution of a task. Starting at the end helps one anticipate lurking pitfalls and problems – allowing one to avoid blind alleys and false starts. People who achieve greatness first expect greatness then figure out how they will accomplish it RATHER THAN starting on a path having no plan or purpose hoping to reach a great destination.

To accomplish great things an individual must demonstrate a sense of determination. A successful person will never repeatedly take the easy road for it often leads towards failure. If success were truly easy, anyone could find it! An innovator will seek an alternate path leading to a different resolution when one road does not bring them to success. Often the effort needed to fail is as significant as that required to succeed! Planning and determination are keys that direct and focus effort towards the accomplishment of dreams - and that allows us to learn from our failures.

If we dare to accomplish our dreams – to be deliberate in our planning and steadfast in our follow-through - we avoid disappointment by recognizing that a temporary failure puts us no further behind than we started. We might rekindle passion for our jobs…our lives…our activities…by seeking not the probable but the possible…not the easy path but the road less traveled.

As another new year begins, toss caution to the wind by stepping outside of your box. We are vessels neither half-empty nor half full waiting impatiently until we can begin to achieve our full potential. Make a resolution to challenge convention this year – to try something different or visit somewhere new – as you bring dreams to fruition by simply asking “Why not?”

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