Perspective

Changing minds, changing lives was the mantra with which former MDA Executive Director Gray Swoope led our agency. The overarching message in John Maxwell’s book, “How Successful People Think,” has parallels with Gray’s charge to the MDA team. Maxwell claims that if you change your way of thinking, you can change your life. In the communities that have gone through the asset mapping process, we have witnessed that change truly can start with one person. If we change our way of thinking to look for what is good and then adopt a plan to improve ourselves or our communities by building on those strengths, then we are much more likely to accomplish grand things.

In his book, Maxwell tells a story of a conversation between a Wal-Mart sales representative and Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton to make this point. The sales rep and Walton were checking out the competition in a small town. In viewing the rival store, the young, inexperienced sales rep saw a dirty, un-stocked store with no customers inside, but Walton noticed that the store had a better panty hose display rack and a bigger supply base of ethnic beauty supplies than Walmart stores were using. The point Maxwell makes is that we have to see the bigger picture – which includes the positive attributes of what we are looking at – if we want to accomplish positive changes.

Another example of positive thinking is Perry Ritchie’s approach. Ritchie is an artist in Canton, and she spends time asking God, “What am I missing?” She, like Sam Walton, looks for potential in things, as opposed to simply seeing limiting factors.

Whether in our community work or in our personal lives, having an overall plan will help us focus our thinking and recognize opportunities. Maxwell points out that people who make it to the top think differently than others, and he reminds us that what we think determines who we become. We can choose to be a victim or to be victorious – it is just a matter of how we think.

“How Successful People Think” outlines ways and reasons to become a good thinker. It states that good thinkers are always in demand because they can solve problems, never lack for ideas to build an organization, and always see hope for a better future. Gray realized that the success of a town was dependent on how its citizens viewed their town, and similarly, Maxwell concludes the difference between successful and unsuccessful people is in how they think. Nothing limits achievement like small, or negative, thinking, and nothing expands possibilities like unleashed thinking and a perspective that looks for the positive.

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