Constructive and Destructive Focus for Action--Building Positive Habits and Attitudes

As I reflect on what I hear and see in news media from around the world and in conversations of the people around me, I am reminded that people develop habits in their focus for action.  Largely these habits can be grouped into one of two areas, constructive or destructive.

It is much easier in video games to create "war" games with a destructive focus.  Taking away an opponent is easier than being able to construct something out of an idea.  Constructive video games are few and far between (at least in today's state of technology).  Movies may have more of a constructive focus, though many of those also focus on some kind of combat--in the old western movies the "good guys wear white hats."

In sports, people are looking for winners and losers with scores as the focus for winning.  In life pursuits it may be more challenging and many people are still looking for "winners" and "losers."

Today's economy in the USA looks at the housing market in terms of winners and losers.  Those who are being forced out of foreclosed homes are looked at as "losers."  While President Obama has several initiatives to help the U.S. economy, one of the initiatives is focused on giving tax credit of up to US$8,000 for first-time home buyers.  In recent news coverage on ABC World News, it showed new home owners closing on a foreclosed home.  The new home buyer is the "winner" and the "loser" is not even on the scene any more.

President Carter and the Habitat for Humanity movement focused on volunteers coming together to build homes for people who could not otherwise afford them.  This is an example of a constructive focus for action.  Volunteers in that movement leave the world a better place than it was before they started.  They are also taking into account "green-initiatives" so that the houses they build are better and safer than the requirements of existing building codes.  I lived in Hollywood, Florida, when Hurricane Andrew blew through in 1992.  Habitat for Humanity homes survived the hurricanes where many of the developed houses did not due to shoddy workmanship of people who didn't think their shortcuts would be discovered.

Another organization with a constructive focus for action is the American Red Cross.  As a volunteer with that organization for 33 years, I can safely say that the focus of the American Red Cross is constructive, helping people in times of disaster and in activities of daily living--teaching swimming and lifesaving and preventing drowning, teaching first aid and CPR and preventing accidents and accidental death. 

As I observe business opportunities and look at the job market in today's economy, I look for opportunities and jobs that have a constructive focus for action.  Our habits and focus will create our attitudes--in the form of a cycle.  If any one of these is destructive, we need to begin to change the other two and our attitudes will change as well.

We build habits as we make our daily choices.  It is up to us to take responsibility for our daily choices and decide to pursue a constructive focus for action rather than to take the "easy way" and choose a destructive one.