Happy 4th of July

Greetings!

The "Up Crew" did a splendid job this morning, and our flags are flying proudly around town once again.  Many thanks to John Mansisidor, Mike Kohout, and Randy Basabe for their early-morning efforts!  And thanks again to John and Randy for their work in establishing new flag accounts and putting up more brackets.  John tells me we now have 97 active accounts.  And, there's potential for more....

The "Down Crew" will meet at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, July 5th at Airport Storage unit #54 (behind the Department of Labor office).  Eric Watson and Hank Boomer have committed to take down, and we still need a few more hands.  Please call John Mansisidor at 315-1389 as soon as possible to let him know you can help.
 

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Mike Kohout shared the following tidbits of wisdom this morning as we sipped some coffee before putting up the flags.  Very appropriate!  Thanks Mike!!

 

BE OPTIMISTIC

Martin Seligman and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania found that the main difference between optimists and pessimists is how they explain setbacks to themselves.  When something bad happens, optimists think of it as temporary, limited in its effect, and not entirely their fault.  Pessimists do the opposite.  They consider the setback to be permanent, far-reaching, and entirely their fault.  There are varying degrees of this, and most people fall somewhere between the two extremes. 

Using these definitions, researchers find that optimism contributes to good health and pessimism contributes to illness.

In several large-scale, long-term, carefully controlled experiments, Seligman discovered that optimists are more successful than pessimists - optimistic politicians win more elections, optimistic students get better grades, optimist athletes win more contest, and optimistic salespeople make more money.

Why?  Because optimism and pessimism both tend to be self-fulfilling prophecies.  If you think a setback is permanent, why would you try to change it?  Pessimistic explanations tend to make you feel defeated, making you less likely to take constructive action.  Optimistic explanations, on the other hand, make you more likely to act.  If you think the setback is only temporary, you're apt to try to do something about it, and because you take action, you make it temporary.  It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The good news is that a pessimist can learn to be an optimist.  Pessimists can learn to see the temporary aspects of setbacks.  They can be more specific about the effects of it.  They can learn to share the blame and take credit for the good they do.  All it takes is practice.  Optimism is simply a way of thinking about good and bad; it's a cognitive skill anyone can learn.  (From First Draft)

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Man's real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.  (Edgar Allen Poe)

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Hope you have a very safe and happy Independence Day Weekend!!

Thanks,

Jim