How do You Think?

It seems we’ve entered a vast, incessant desert where mirages abound. Many people today have visions of socialistic type solutions to the country’s problems. And they see government as the executor in solving every problem we have or might encounter.

Those mirages may look real, but that doesn’t change the fact they’re not – and rushing to a fictitious oasis only drains more energy and resources to often travel in the wrong direction – and even more to keep going to the next mirage oasis. It does not quench the thirst for prosperity and self-esteem and achievement. It only results in exhausting disappointment and wasted enthusiasm, strength, time and resources.

When Congress passes a law we’re supposed to think that it’s smart, kind, considerate, caring – looking out for us – and that whatever issue will be successfully resolved: that people will be better off, that the mirage will become real. Experience clearly shows that rarely happens.

Bob Rotella, a sports psychologist who has worked with Olympians and champions in virtually every sport, has a best-selling book out titled How Champions Think: In Sports and in Life.

In it he outlines what an “exceptional person” does to excel – based on his experience in working with hundreds of champions.

“Most people choose to live lives that are as safe and secure as they can make them. But then, most people don’t really think through the human situation. We’re blessed with one life, and that’s all we can be certain about. They take that one life they’re given, and they drift through it. Maybe they’re satisfied with that,” he writes.

He goes on: “The people I know who seek to be exceptional would not settle for a safe, secure and ultimately dull life. They have a different attitude toward their lives, a philosophy that impels them to go in the opposite direction, to seek excellence, to be exceptional.”

Now I realize that most of us are not LeBron James or Tiger Woods or Mohammad Ali. We don’t have their physical talent. But even champions know it takes determination and sweat.

That translates to “each of us can excel.” We can decide to excel as students, as parents, in our work, careers or hobbies. That doesn’t just happen. We need to decide – to make a choice.

People make the choice to live indefinitely on entitlements. While it may be ‘safe,’ when that happens it’s not a choice to excel.

We all want to help people who have fallen on hard times. It’s part of our culture. But most of us expect those people to get back on their feet and at a minimum attain self-sufficiency again – to take the opportunity to excel to some extent.

Experience shows that the longer people get free stuff – entitlements – the longer more of them venture no further. That endgame is not caring, not compassionate, not charitable. It results in holding people back and long-term dependency. More importantly it impacts how they think.

The American culture has been to provide its citizens the opportunity to excel, to make choices to improve personally and for their families. And it usually comes with some failures. But that’s how we learn.

Colonists – immigrants – came here with that mindset. 1776 patriots risked all for independence and freedom. Pioneers set out over the wilderness with the idea of improving their condition and lot. Entrepreneurs took chances, faced risk. It’s not safe to decide to face the unknown. It takes sacrifice and hard work to excel – and the pursuit of excellence is not a temporary choice. It’s a life-long commitment – a state of mind.

That kind of thinking made America the most successful major nation ever on the planet.

What are we thinking now?

We’re being lulled into thinking that achievement and success is not something within each of us, but dependent on what the political elite decide we’re a victim of and therefore “due.” And many of them tell us it’s not fair when some people excel and others don’t – and those that do should be de-incentivized, even penalized. Certainly, according to them, any financial rewards should be shared with those who do not excel.

We should be rejecting that kind of thinking out-of-hand. It’s not what government can do for us, it’s what government can and is doing to us. The writers of our Constitution realized and understood that success and excellence comes only with personal responsibility – and provided a backdrop creating the opportunity for people to individually and collectively excel.

Socialistic ideas for redistribution of wealth to address income disparity create a cruel mirage – and undesirable outcomes. They contradict and dampen the human spirit and the intent of America’s Constitution while creating the mirage of ‘equality.’ We’re all equal when we’re born. But we all don’t end up with the same income or the same attitude. Some excel and achieve more, and socialism removes that incentive, that state of mind. ‘Equity’ is a phony mirage – and not about equality at all.

When we have 43 million people receiving food stamps, nearly 50% of U.S. households receiving benefits from one or more of 126 entitlement programs, and the government spending $1T+ annually on these programs – we’re not creating an environment that encourages personal excellence.