"Part 7: Read Carl Jeffrey Wright’s In Search of Heroes Interview and Become Inspired" by Ralph Zuranski
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Ralph Zuranski: Is it useful to take a positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes?
Jeff Wright: I think sometimes mistakes and setbacks and misfortunes can be just that. They can be devastating. Things happen in our lives that are often unpleasant, unfortunate. We don’t want to go through them and it can be very, very hard.
Jeff Wright: Sometimes it’s not real easy to say, “Okay, let me find the good in this.” I think of the story of Joseph in the Bible. In the end he said, “You meant it for evil, God meant it for good.” But I’m not sure he was that happy to be in jail all those years or to be thrown into a pit.
Jeff Wright: So I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t try to find a way to look on the bright side and to be as positive as we can but I think it’s also important to operate in reality. And the reality is sometimes life is very hard and we need comforting. We need to take care of ourselves.
Jeff Wright: I don’t advocate going into pity parties and so on, but at the same time there is a certain unrealism that says that you have to always be positive and always look for the best because sometimes things aren’t real good.
Jeff Wright: At the same time I believe, and I kind of live by, one of my favorite expressions and that is there is a reason why the windshield is bigger than the review mirror. There really is a reason. We need to know what is behind us and it’s important to glance up there every now and then, but we have to go forward.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think that optimism is valuable?
Jeff Wright: Absolutely. I just refer you to my comment I just made about looking ahead and not behind. We need to have a forward look.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you maintain your sense of humor in the face of serious problems?
Jeff Wright: I try to be as lighthearted as I can and to bring levity in many, many situations. I think humor is very therapeutic. Again I think the example of Christ is great. I think if we could have a laugh track to the New Testament we would find that there was a lot more laughter and humor coming in those words of Christ than we ever imagined.
Jeff Wright: I think God has a great sense of humor and I try to have a great sense of humor. It is just therapeutic. It’s a positive thing. At the same time I believe we need to balance that.
Jeff Wright: Sometimes people try to find humor in situations that just really are not funny. It’s an escape mechanism. So as much as I might try to be as positive and as humorous as I can, there are some situations that we are faced with, and particularly today, that really don’t need humor at all and in fact it’s probably inappropriate.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you take time out of your day to feed your subconscious positive thoughts about you, your goals and your dreams?
Jeff Wright: I keep continuing an inner dialog of positive commentary going on. Scripture talks about how David encouraged himself in the Lord and I have to encourage myself.
Jeff Wright: I have to, as an ongoing practice of being a leader of an organization, make sure that I’m setting as positive of a tone as I can, often in the face of very difficult and complex problems that require a lot of intense thoughts.
Jeff Wright: So this is a habit, this is a practice, that I believe is an important one for anyone in leadership and it’s particularly important today because there is such a continuing drone of negative information that flows.
Jeff Wright: In fact, you can try this test any time you are in public or standing in line in a grocery store where people always tend to go towards the negative. The only thing we want to talk about in this society is what happened that was negative.
Jeff Wright: I’ve never been standing in a line in a public place and some stranger says, “Hey, guess what happened yesterday? My kid got all A’s.” Usually it’s, “Did you hear about what happened to the Crocodile Hunter man” or did you hear about this negative event or that negative event.
Jeff Wright: One of the things that I believe is a challenge to all of us living here in our media-saturated American society is to find our way to the positive. Find a way to think on and ultimately speak on those things that are good and honest and as Paul laid out, those things that are of good report.
Jeff Wright: It’s very easy for Christians to omit and to forget about the obligation that we have to be bearers of good news and not repeaters of the negativity that so pervades this society.