“It is up to us to live up to the legacy that was left for us, and to leave a legacy that is worthy of our children and of future generations.” ~ Christine Gregoire
The world has gone freakin’ mad. Within a couple of days last week, we had mass murders, a riot and a beheading. These headlines caught my eye as two of these atrocities were carried out in France where I had just been a couple of week’s prior. The British Prime Minister claims we should almost expect occurrences like the murders and beheadings as it’s only going to get worse.
This is the world our children are growing up in. We can only protect them and shield their eyes from this for so long.
The riot I mention was in Paris caused by taxi drivers objecting to the introduction of competitors Uber and how it would impact them. These taxi drivers who were blocking access to train stations, airports, damaging and burning cars are adults, no doubt a majority parents and grandparents, taking a stand against a competitor.
There are ways to make a point and in my book, this isn’t one of them. This was a pathetic display of the inability to be resourceful in attempting to influence outcomes, control emotions and communicate. Rather it was thuggish behaviour with little consideration for the people, community or world around them.
I am truly concerned for our next generations. What we all need to realise is ‘leadership’ is not a suit we put on when we enter a workplace. We can’t just choose to be a leader at work and then take off our suit when we enter our personal world. This personal world of ours is where true leadership is critical. At the sports ground, in the play grounds, in your home, at schools, in the handling of challenging situations and how we treat our family, friends and acquaintances.
We talk a lot about the need to stop domestic violence, stop bullying in schools; stop cruelty to animals and the list goes on.
Bullying, cruelty to animals, domestic violence and child abuse will never cease until we as adults change how we think, how we react and how we treat each others and what we are teaching our kids through our words and actions. We have the responsibility of shaping generations to come. That’s a bloody big responsibility.
Our children need role models in true leadership now even more than ever. The world has changed, as we know it. It’s never going to be the same again. We need to equip the next generations with resilience, critical thinking skills, resourceful decision making skills, empathy and basic respect for other human beings and living beings. We need to teach them to consider consequence, understand basic right from wrong and BE the positive influencer in their lives. We need to teach them to be leaders by being leaders and demonstrating how we want them to be. Everyday. In every way.
We have to get this right. The negative influence out there is strong.