This I Believe

I believe that life is good. However, I believe it is up to each of us to make it so. I believe there are two attributes that are critical in our lives. They are optimism and perseverance. I’ll say that again, optimism and perseverance.

I feel quite sure of this. You see, I consider myself a serious student of people and what I’ll call here, the “human condition”. My definition, being that we are all born onto earth, into our families and situations, totally flawed; not anywhere near perfect. So if that’s our condition, what are we to do while we are here on this earth and what principles and attitudes will serve us best?

Life will be challenging and painful at times for every single one of us. I am 100%, sure of this. Everyone will have what we call “bad things” happen to them. Some will sting like a small bug bite, but some will bring pain throughout an entire life. I say entire life, but it doesn’t have to be every minute of life. I believe the sooner a young adult realizes that this is inevitable, the better off they’ll be.

Think of the poor soul that doesn’t admit that unpleasant things will happen in life. How tragic that that person continually gets knocked down, thinking that one day everything will be perfect, that life is not full of difficulties. Once you accept that life is full of difficulties, you can focus on, and enjoy the good parts of life, which if you have optimism, far, far outweigh the bad.

Having optimism makes you more aware of the countless good things in life. They can be very broad in nature, like family and friends, the beauty found in the outdoors or they can be very specific, like watching a favorite sports team get a victory, listening to a good song, sitting down with a good book, watching a good movie, exercising or learning something interesting. The list of good things in life can go on and on, if we just pay attention, looking through the lens of optimism. But don’t hope for optimism to come naturally. You have to work on optimism, it rarely comes automatically.

The person that usually comes to my mind when I think about people with an optimistic outlook is one of my grandmothers. Even though many parts of her life would clearly be described as extremely difficult, she always had an optimistic outlook; as much so as anybody I’ve ever known. If you keep optimism at the forefront of your mind every day, it will do wonders for your life and provide the energy for the other essential attribute, perseverance.

By the time we become young adults we have all seen and heard of hundreds of people that show perseverance. Some people have had to rely on perseverance during certain tough times in their life, while others must rely on it during their entire life. Always, always keep perseverance at the top of your mind.

My great grandfather, who started what has grown into an extensive family business, had a serious stuttering problem as a child and youth. His classmates teased him and picked on him all the time. So much that he once stated it seemed like he got in a fight almost every day after coming out of the school building. After one particular fight that happened in the classroom, he was kicked out of school in the eighth grade, vowing to never go back. Rather than giving in and becoming a drunk or worse, he found a job on a road building crew, paying him practically nothing at first. Those early years were extremely tough, but using perseverance, he stuck with it, never giving up.

My hope for you if you’ve heard these words is that you keep optimism and perseverance at the forefront of your life, every single day!

Dan Rechter lives in Louisville, Ky., where he works for his family's company, the Rogers Group, which is now in its 4th/5th generation of ownership. Mr. Rechter enjoys a variety of activities, including exercise and outdoor activities, and he and his wife Jane have two college-age children.