Several months ago, while in China, I took note of the particular consistency and pride of reference made by many Chinese... the USA is the largest developed nation and China is the largest developing nation. This is something that we've heard expressed here in the USA by economists, business persons and politicians as well, for some time. Here at home, we hear this from a position of lingering strength...hearing it away from home gives it a more impending meaning.
Developed is past tense, as we all know. Developing is progressive. While there is no doubt that China is a developing nation, are we so certain of ... so consigned to ... the idea that America is becoming a 'has been' nation? If we say it, and hear it, enough, will we believe it to be true? Does repeating it teach it?
My inclination has never been that in order to have a winner, there must also be a loser. As a matter of course, during my childhood our parents had a standard that until all ten of my siblings and I had completed assignments, chores or whatever, no one was done. We all had to win ... respective to our different strengths, interests or opportunities ... we each had to put an individual best foot forward. That often meant dragging a younger or less willing one along so that the 'whole thing would be done'. Is this now possibly how we may need to look at our modern world? Are we not all nations, different in strengths and size, sharing a common home - earth?
Going back a bit further, one of my earliest classroom conjugations was 'good, better, best' and I remember my father's comments to me about this. "Janice, always do your best, but don't ever think you've done your best!" Throughout my growing up, my father and I debated this order, and I retrospectively admit that I was fluid to its meaning depending on whether I wanted relief from practice at the piano or prize coins for a good report. Daddy never wavered. He simply believed that the correct order of things was 'good, better, best, better!' So, when we ran a contest in my company called 'Beat Your Best', the idea was conceived from my father's own conjugation lessons in North Carolina so long ago. That is, we all do whatever our best is, and then win prizes for beating it day by day.
It occurs to me that in this present global economy, this season of redefining everything from workforce planning to greening our economy, we all might engage ourselves in the contest of beating our best, at whatever it is that we do in both work and everyday living. In the midst of much current attention to a still nervous economy and redesigned workforce, now is the perfect time for each of us to select at least one thing we will improve at, daily, that enhances our lives individually or collectively. There is no doubt in my mind that if every one of us did this, every one of us, we would see astounding and immediate positive impact in our daily lives and in the direction and growth of our country. Sure, this sounds like 'Pollyanna'... but what will it hurt to dedicate one part of ourselves to getting better, smarter, faster ... kinder, stronger, wiser ... each day, even as we nurse whatever failures, fears or faults we choose to continue to acknowledge?
The truth is that every one of us will not make it a contest to beat our best. But that need not mean America will lose prominence, or the least bit of relevance. It simply means that some of us will carry the weight for others of us. Some of us will discover, invent and dream so all of us can be healed, transported and travel to places not yet known. Some of us will debate and defend so that others can learn and know justice. Some of us will daily beat our best so that all of us can live a little better.
