I was standing in line at the grocery store this morning when a little boy asked his mom if he could have ONE piece of candy - his argument was that One piece didn't matter, that it would be okay.............her response was NO his sugar was high this morning so he could not have One.
WHOA - at the start of the "plea bargaining" I was swaying towards the side of the kid...............Mom slammed dunked the win with the blood sugar comeback!
In his case the Power of One could be a very drastic One and One that could potentially have physical harm.............in my case? It's just another few ounces on the hips but nothing I can't lose if a few months or years.
While this may have started off with thinking about a candy bar it has gone a lot further with the thought of just what ONE can mean in our lives.
2012 is a major election year
(in case you missed it, we are going to either elect or re-elect a president this year - and if you missed it your probably not reading this because you are living under a rock, in a cave, in the mountains).
I am a voter, I ALWAYS vote - even in the Amendment "elections"! Since 1977 I have missed ONE chance to vote and I regret that I did not make my voice heard on that One!
That being said I STRESS that I am not a "blind" voter - I do not vote straight ticket on purpose, just often it ends up that way.
I look at each candidate for each office and if I am unable to find out about a candidate and opponent I do NOT vote on that particular race ;
When I vote on amendments I search around until I find the "ole lady plain English version" and read what they really are saying!
Every election I hear people talking, saying their vote does not count/matter and every year I address it with YES IT DOES! I can name you one county commissioner election that I voted in that the candidate that I wanted to win..............lost by ONE vote and I know two people who said they wanted to vote for him but didn't go vote because they thought he would win WITHOUT their help! Guess what...........he didn't!
It is not just in elections, it is in life! How many times have you heard of an event or a program that has been canceled because they could not find enough volunteers or sell enough tickets to be able to have it? How many times has this happened with something that you thought was a great idea or a really special thing?
Boycott - it's a word thrown about a lot and it has been used with great effectiveness in many cases. Most schools of thought would say that you have to have "great numbers" for the effect to be felt................but let's put it on the Power of One for this example:
I work part time at a major retail location, and like many businesses we have a daily sales plan or goal that we set for each day. With that sales plan also comes the staffing plan, i.e. X amount of dollars projected so we have Y employees working that day. Now the sales plan is reported in advance and we are judged by whether we make that plan - dollar amount, percentage, and made it/didn't make it. The three are balanced but each is a category. I can tell you that on two DIFFERENT days in the past few months we have MISSED the sales plan by LESS THAN $25! It gave us a NEGATIVE in all three categories, true it was a very small amount dollar wise, a very small percentage but it was still a NEGATIVE. What is $25? It is ONE customer and ONE pair of jeans.............imagine if 25 customers had gone to a DIFFERENT store to buy their jeans? The dollar amount would get MUCH larger, and so would our percentage! Back to the Power of ONE!
In most cases it is NOT the ONE that makes the difference, rather it is the SUM of the ONES that tip the scales for or against. It is Kindergarten folks! 1+0 still equals One, BUT.................1+1=2! 2+1=3; 3+1=4; 4+1=5; and so on.....................
Flip it and 5-1 (that person that said their vote didn't mater so they didn't vote) = 4; 4-1 (well John didn't vote so why should I bother)=3; 3-1 (I don't want to get out, it's cold today) = 2; 2-1 (I am just so busy right now) =1; 1-1 (oh they will win without my vote) = ZERO!
Yes I still say that the Power is in the ONE, but there has to be the ONE.............and it is the SUM of all of those ONES that make the difference or the indifference in our world!
There are a lot of great books out there telling us how one person can make a difference and how to do this step by step. A few that I have enjoyed are:
One Makes The Difference ; One Can Make The Difference: A collection of stories from authors including Paul McCartney ; The Tipping Point: How little things can make a big difference
Every great journey begins with ONE step, every great innovation begins with ONE person thinking that it might work, and every great change begins with ONE person believing that it is possible.
Forgive me if my memory fails the exact wording but I remember an old tale -
"A man was walking along the shore, the beach was littered with starfish that had been washed ashore in the recent storm. Many of them were past the point where high tide would have taken them back to the water. He saw a young boy picking up a starfish and throwing it back into the ocean. He asked the young man why he was bothering to do so because it would NOT make a difference, he could NOT save them all. The little boy responded by picking up another starfish and throwing it into the ocean........he looked at the man and said "It made a difference to that one".
Use your POWER! You are ONE! And you are the most Powerful Force on this Planet!
No comments:
Post a Comment