Initiative isn’t just for Measles

I can’t even count how many times I have heard people say that they will do something “when they have the time”. While they are sitting in their couches talking to me on the phone for over an hour about how they don’t have time to volunteer or “have too much on their plate right now” that they need to quit our high school’s Red Cross club, I am trying to find polite ways to tell them not to rest on their laurels and to take the initiative to do more than they think they can.

I believe that organization is all in the mind. If you let yourself believe that you won’t be able to find time to brainstorm a few ideas for fundraisers or to return that phone call from an important contact, you won’t. I sometime am a hypocrite in that sense. It is hard for me to take the initiative to return emails or sit down and finish that essay on my own. It always takes some outside force to push me to do it. Just like Newton said in his First Law of Motion: Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. We can all take a lesson from Sir Issac by pushing ourselves and our friends to give a little more to the cause. What do we have to lose?

We all have friends or co-workers within the American Red Cross system that we feel comfortable with in some way. I think its a good idea to have weekly phone conversations with Red Cross friends who can help us to stay on track with our commitments. I can vouch for a system similar to this that involves weekly emailing between me and my ARC friends. It is not only a good way to catch up on important ARC news, but we also give updates to eachother about what we are working on, which helps us to stay productive and active.

So why not take the initiative to propose a system such as this in any organization you are involved in? It could prove invaluable to your cause later on. I think that if you can find enough time to IM or text your friends on a daily basis, finding ten minutes or so to catch up with ARC contacts shouldn’t be a huge problem. Who knows, it could very well end up being the most productive part of your day!

Sheila Mirzai
Concord, California