I keep hearing about all the bad news on TV and in the newspaper. I’m a little stumped by that characterization. How can news be bad? I’m pretty sure that while the reports might be about tough times or difficult conditions the news is never bad. It is simply informative, nothing more nothing less.
What can be bad is how we respond to it. Yes, the media is very helpful in making certain we respond to their “information” in a negative way. There clearly has been a “sky is falling” mentality around for a long while now and most of the 24 hours news outlets continue to offer us a fresh helping of gloom each day.
While we don’t have input into what they report, we do have a choice in how we respond. We can choose to take the information provided and use it to be more empathic to those immediately affected. We can change our own plans as a result of economic conditions or predictions. We can listen and then decide for ourselves how much we will let the “news” impact our lives and our circumstances.
We can use the news as a learning tool to understand the challenges our countries face and the challenges our companies face as well. We must use the news to adjust our plans and likely our goals along with them.
Obviously, pure optimism or positive thinking, without a well thought-out plan of action, is not the way to go. Instead, we need to focus on what is possible and then move forward with a clear strategy for success.
We can’t let “the news” cause us to plan for failure. Progress, profitability, and prosperity remain our only options and they are just as available to us today as they were in the past.
Success is all around today, though it is sometimes well hidden in news stories about failure, corruption, and despair, it is there nonetheless. All you need to do is be open to finding it and looking a little harder and longer than normal.