Most Important Thing
Weekly update 9/11/2022 to 9/17/2022 #138
About ten years ago I put on something that I work very hard to not take off. Before I share more about this though, let me share about my week serving as the mayor of the best smalltown in America.
Congratulations to Seymour Police Chief Greg O’Brien on his recent graduation from the FBI National Academy. The 10-week program is difficult to get accepted into and even more difficult to graduate from. After completion Chief is part of just one percent of law enforcement officers nationwide to have achieved this accomplishment. Thank you, Greg O’Brien, for all of your hard work to achieve this and thank you for your commitment to our community.
Recently, I had a chance to call bingo for the residents of Seymour Place. We played the usual bingo favorites for the chance to win some bingo bucks. The activities director will have a store they can spend those bingo bucks at later on. As we were chatting during the games, we talked of things they enjoyed, and one resident shared that he used to love attending the Oktoberfest parade. After we finished, I discussed it with the activities director, and we think we have found a way to broadcast the parade into the lobby area for residents to enjoy the parade remotely. Thank you to everyone involved in solving the problem and thank you to the resident for the suggestion.
This past week, I had a chance to help some community members celebrate their graduation from the Getting Ahead in a Just Gettin’ by World program. I was able to help with transportation to get to the event, able to share a meal, and able to learn about the 10-week program they had just completed. If you would like to learn more or to get involved, reach out to Jackson County United Way for details. Congratulations to all the graduates and all the volunteers on this first round of the program.
Kudos to the Southern Indiana Center for the Arts for bringing back An Artful Affair. The event sold out fairly quickly, which led to adding additional seating. I believe this shows the support our area has for the arts. The event also brought Seymour native John Mellencamp back to a local stage for the first time since 1976. Thank you, John, for sharing stories and music with the crowd. Seeing a few hundred people singing along and even messing up "Jack and Diane" was a moment that I won’t soon forget.
Time to get back to that opening thought and explain what I “put on” that I work at keeping on every day. That Item is a positive attitude. Several times a week I get complimented in one form or another on my positive attitude, positive leadership style, or positive perspective on our community. As natural as it seems from me now, it wasn’t always so easy. I can clearly remember more than a few years where looking back I can say I was negative and maybe even bitter. Something happened in September of 2012 though, that sparked a change in me and a change in my world. I shared on social media, “The best way to live in a positive world is to start changing it yourself.” And I did start to try to change it myself by focusing on myself. The last sentence of the post read, “You reap what you sow, so smile and wave; maybe they will return the same.” As the years have gone by, I can tell you that you do reap what you sow. When you put positivity into your own thought process, you will then put it out into the world around you. Then at that point it will start coming back to you in ways you never expected. The team around you will start to feed off of it and each other, and you will see changes you never expected. To start though, you have to look inside first. You have to find what makes you happy. Look for what makes you sad or mad and ask yourself how can I make those things better. As we start to change our thoughts, we will start to change ourselves. Soon after, we will start to see the changes around us. Today, I will leave you with the words of Jeff Moore, “The most important thing you’ll ever wear is your attitude.” I hope that as you turn in tonight you will choose to focus on a positive attitude, and when you rise in the morning, you decide to put on a positive attitude and change yourself and the world around you in the process.