As someone whose annual calendar is heavily anchored in the activities of the Georgia General Assembly, the annual declaration of Sine Die for adjournment is a bit of relief. In fact, it’s quite freeing. It’s time to consider what is next.
The immediate focus for the capitol and capital community turns to The Masters in Augusta. It’s easy to deride this priority for the legislators to finish business prior to golfers taking practice swings with the state’s best azaleas as a backdrop, but the Masters is a serious business venture for the state. The elite of the international business community convene here for a week, and our top leaders in government and commerce put on a full court press to lure more economic activity in the aftermath. Think of it as Davos with a southern drawl.
For most of the rest of us, we have Passover, Easter, and/or Spring Break marking our calendars. Some are looking ahead a few weeks further, as graduations begin in earnest in about a month. There’s a lot of “what’s next?” to go around.
Part of the allure of the “what’s next?” mindset is leaving the present, and moving more items into our past. This can be in the form of marking accomplishments on our permanent record, or turning the page on current struggles in the hopes of better things tomorrow.
With the longer and warmer days accompanied by green shoots and colorful blooms, it’s a good time to shift mindsets to positions of optimism. Evidence of new life and growth is all around us. It’s up to us to decide to consciously join it. Optimism, at its root, is a choice.
Optimism doesn’t mean a detachment with Realism. Reality is just the field on which Optimism and Pessimism play against each other. Each of us gets to decide which wins.
For those of us on the Christian calendar, the backdrop of Easter highlights the stark difference in the “What’s next?” mindset. The week between Palm Sunday and Easter is the darkest of our year. It is so dark that…
Read the full article here
