In this marvelous digital/Internet age, we have the opportunity to hear a lot of different voices, speaking their minds on blogs, news outlets, and you tube videos. There are many people offering visions of a better future. I think that’s just fabulous.
But here’s the problem: all too often, someone who has a vision for a better future falls into using one or more of the following words/phrases: “we need,” “we should,” “we must,” “we ought to,” and… “we have to.”
There is nothing wrong with putting forth laudable goals per se. The trouble is, stating such goals may actually work against you. Why? Because it can create an illusion of achievement.
That is the big but invisible danger that this kind of language poses. Before taking meaningful action, you have to make honest assessments re: how much power and courage you have to make anything happen. And so this kind of language runs the risk of being ultimately disempowering, because it leads us into dreaming longingly about the future instead of taking a long hard look at how much power, courage, and commitment we truly have, and how willing we are to actually sacrifice and confront right now.
It’s very easy to become very satisfied with one’s self in stating these goals and thereby giving the world a “call to action.” But in reality, how often have you heard someone in a leadership position say what we need to do, and then not follow up?
Peter Drucker said, “Brilliant men are often surprisingly ineffectual. They often fail to understand that brilliant insight is not in itself achievement.”
There is an old phrase: “talk is cheap.” We “need to be” a little more demanding of people who offer up idealistic verbiage.
© Justin Locke
