I love that song. The topic this morning is glass half full. Some of you might say the glass is half empty, but I’ve always been an optimist. That glass is half full for me.
Sometimes I’ll hear bad news. There were times when something awful happened in my career. Maybe I didn’t get the sales call. Maybe I didn’t get the promotion. But I always believe that I will learned something from that moment, and I’ll take it to the next step. I’ll take advantage of that moment and believe in myself. Believe in the job. Believe in the mission. Believe in my family and that things will be fine.
How often do you hang out with a negative person and enjoy yourself? It’s difficult. Saturday Night Live has a routine – Debbie Downer. It’s a funny routine where the person is always just complaining and always discouraged – never positive.
You’ve got to believe in yourself. You’ve got to believe in your family, and in your job, and in your company, that things are going to be fine. Sometimes you’ve got to work at it. Sometimes each day, each moment won’t be pleasant, but you’re going to get there.
Let me tell you a half empty, half full story. I was raising money for an organization and I had put together a proposal asking for a million dollars.
Nothing happened.
My co-workers teased me that I had asked for too much money, and that if I had asked for a smaller gift, I might have been successful. But I kept believing that what I was presenting to that company was the right request.
I waited patiently. I did my proper follow up, tweaked the proposal a little bit so it could be more attractive to that potential donor. Eventually, in fact, it was eight months later, that gift happened. And it was a significant gift to the organization, one that kept renewing for six years. It changed that organization’s fundraising model, changed its reach around the world, and it was because I kept believing that was the right proposal. I kept believing that I could get that glass full. Instead of giving up, and saying that that gift wasn’t going to happen.
If you have a belief in yourself, if you have strength of character and a foundation to get you to the next level, it will happen.
But sometimes you’ve got to look at that glass and say “how do I get it full?”
Does that mean I need more education? Does that mean I need a mentor? Perhaps I need to have some counseling. Whatever it is to get that glass full, that’s what you need to do.
So believe in yourself. Do what needs to be done to get that glass full. And take that song that you just heard and use it as a motivator to keep you going and to shake it off.
