In light of the government shutdown that took place this week, I want to share with you an excerpt from Grow Regardless:
There is probably not a single American who thinks our elected officials are decent role models for us these days. Year after year, they’ve called upon us to tighten our belts, while being unwilling to make sacrifices of their own. If ordinary people like you and me followed our leaders’ examples and went home without doing our jobs more than once or twice, we’d be toast. Not so for the folks in Washington. The double standard is sickening.
Now, I wrote that almost a year ago, and I’ll bet hundreds, even thousands of people have been blogging and writing articles with the same theme all week, but I think they everyone is missing one critical thing in their message…
No one is DOING anything about it!
Think about all the time we waste by reading and watching people on T.V. “talk” about the shutdown, how they feel, what they would have done differently…
I get it… I’m writing about it now… and asking you to read about it now, but just hear me out for a minute…
If you spend 60 minutes each day watching the news and you have three 20-minute conversations a day about what you saw on the news—you’re looking at 14 hours of your week (that’s almost 2 and half days per month) wasted on “talking” about an issue…
So, what I’m trying to say is, that when we watch the “drama” unfold on the news and debate the issues with our friends, we’re just whining about it, versus actually doing something to change it. We’re just wasting time—we’re not changing anything.
Too often, we get stuck playing the victim instead of taking responsibility for what’s happening around us—instead, let’s do something to create real change.
Now, let’s stop talking about it and do something:
- Write a letter: Address your congressman with your concerns. Don’t hold back! Let him know how upset you are and what you think needs to be done/changed to make a difference.
- Get on the phone: Letters are cool, but take longer to get in front of the people who matter—a phone call to your congressman is immediate.
- Write a blog: I know, I said we all waste too much time reading and writing about this, but your voice is important too—so make it count. Get your message (about taking action) out there and urge others to join your efforts.
- Give back: Remember, you still live in the USA (not the USSR), so be grateful for what you have and aware that not everyone is as fortunate as you. Make sure you take the time to help those in need by giving them your time.
- Vote differently: No one can change the past, but you can control how your future votes effect the future of our country.
- Get back to work: The government may be shut down, but you’re not… stop reading this blog and go make a difference!
