Focus on Your Strenghts
Congressman Tom Osborne was in Columbus last week for an E-commerce and Business workshop. He presented a message that is very applicable for a lot of things in our communities and our families. His message was “Focus on Your Strengths”. We have a lot of strengths in Nebraska. Most of our strengths, Nebraskans take for granted. We underestimate the value of living in a relatively safe community, of having a supply of water, of having high quality people in the community, and of productive land. These are just some of the strengths of Nebraska that can be utilized more fully as we move forward.
He did have some suggestions that we could utilize as we build for the future. Some of the ways these strengths can be utilized in a community setting include:
* Think regionally. This means communities, counties and even states will need to work together. They will probably also need to organize together.
*Access to a full-time economic developer. In order to capture many of the strengths, someone working for us full time will be important. It may have to happen on a regional basis.
* Develop Entrepreneurs. Congressman Osborne sees entrepreneurship as a way to capture skills of the youth of Nebraska. It is also a way to work with these young people to stay in Nebraska or come back to Nebraska after they have gone to college.
* Instill community pride. This can be done by having community projects, celebrations, etc. It is a way to bring people together. It is extremely important in turning negative attitudes into being able to work with strengths.
* Involve youth in an organized way. Look at connections that can be made between the community and schools. How can classes and youth organizations be a benefit to the community in a way that helps the youth develop pride, connection, and appreciation of Nebraska.
* Organize seniors. Are we fully utilizing all of the talent that is in this group?
* Consider the value that tourism can add to the economic base. We generally undervalue the potential.
* Recognize that our standard of living is not directly tied to dollars. We can have a much higher standard of living in Nebraska for less dollars that most other parts of the nation.
How can we take these themes to improve our communities?
Do these themes ring a bell as we think also about other aspects of our lives? Can we utilize some of them in developing characteristics of appreciation, commitment, communication, coping ability, spiritual well-being and time together that are important for strong families? Congressmen Osborne challenged us to eliminate the negative and focus on the strengths. This is a very important challenge for each of us and all of us together. It is a message that changed a losing football team into a winning football team.
