I don’t know about you, but as this new year unfolds with incredibly new adjustments to make, sometimes it's helpful to take a step back from the news of the day and assess not what’s happening TO you, but decide what are you doing FOR you.
You see, there are only 24 hours in a day. That is an undeniable fact. There is no alternative to this fact. Therefore, how we use those 24 hours can determine outcomes. It is never more imperative than now how we manage our energy.
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As I write in my book TAP INTO YOUR JUICE, our juice is the mental, spiritual, physical and emotional energy that we have to employ to the tasks at hand to live our lives, raise our families-- to find our gifts, lose our fears and build our dreams.
If we spend that time spinning about what is happening to us, then there simply is less time to plan creatively what we can do for ourselves. Yes, we have significant problems in our communities, our country and the world. They can be scary, devastating, overwhelming. But, we cannot let them be debilitating.
Today as we continue to celebrate Black History Month, “Yes We Can” can be a reverberating cry like Maya Angelou’s “And Still I Rise.” Our history can strengthen our future. We come from Kings and Queens. We’ve built civilizations, invented amazing things that have changed the world. Hidden Figures, anyone?
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Today, we are seeing levels of activism that are energizing. We are seeing emphasis on our health that is empowering. We are seeing an awakening about the importance of education, economic and legal lessons that all citizens need to know about.
So, Yes We Can.
We can Agitate.
We Can Educate.
Yet, we must also Execute.
We must Get. Things. DONE. Write that book. Start that business. Go back to school. Grind for that job, for that promotion. Be sure your child gets that homework done. Get those applications in on time. Delay gratification and take responsibility for finances, obligations, exercise, respecting others, being kind.
Importantly, and I know this will sound difficult in these times, but I think we also have to stop being afraid of each other.
Many of our young people are in crisis. They are looking to gangs for affirmation that is absent at home. While it is not feasible for us all to walk the streets lending a hand, we can do so with a smile, a positive nod when passing by instead of a glare when on the train, in a store or at the movies. We are all human.
A few years ago, I visited one of the jails in Chicago with a friend whose son had been arrested on a minor offense. In the waiting area, there were so many young women with babies waiting to go in. The young ladies had their own mothers there who were young grandmothers to watch the babies during the visits. We’re talking generations of issues.
When they marched the young men into the area approved for visits, I looked each of them in the eyes. I didn’t see thugs. I saw math scholars, engineers, doctors, lawyers, businessmen, teachers, builders, husbands, fathers, young kings….if only they had turned right instead of left. If only perhaps someone had taken the time to show them they had value.
As entrepreneurs, professionals, moms, dads, we can go into schools and volunteer to talk to kids and show them living, breathing examples of another way. Yes. We. Can. In order to have the faith of a mustard seed, you have to show them what seeds look like. For many, it is impossible to believe in something you have never seen up close. Plant the seeds. Water them so they can take root.
Look, I still have my "Yes We Can!" T-Shirt. I wore it to volunteer on phone banks to help elect our first African-American president. Gonna frame it. Yes. We. Can. Yes We. Did. And Yes We Can Do It Again…for a different time and in different ways. Spread the concept broadly and widely. Focus on the possible, not the craziness. Yes, be aware of what we are up against, but do not let it paralyze you. Let it propel you to the next level of progress.
God has gifted each and every one of us. If we focus on Finding our Gifts, Losing Our Fears and Building our Dreams we will overcome these times. Yes We Can. Yes We Will.
Born and raised in Detroit, Amy S. Hilliard is the Principal of The Hilliard Group, founder of The ComfortCake Company and former President of Fashion Fair Cosmetics as well as a senior executive for Gillette, L’Oreal, Pillsbury and Burrell Communications Group. A graduate of Howard University and the Harvard Business School, Amy is known as the “The Mother of Reinvention”. She is an international speaker and author of TAP INTO YOUR JUICE, Find Your Gifts, Lose Your Fears and Build Your Dreams, endorsed by First Lady Michelle Obama. Join Amy’s email list here http://eepurl.com/b2S5CD http://eepurl.com/b2S5CD. Visit her website, www.amyshilliard.com, and check her out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
