There Is Always Time for Change

Thirty Years, One Truth

For the last few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about accountability. Not the kind we point outward. The kind we look inward for.

I had the privilege of serving as Editor of the Independent for about five years. What I learned during that time is simple: sustainability is a daily choice. Integrity is a daily choice. Showing up when it’s easier not to… is a daily choice.

And that’s why thirty years matters.

Thirty years doesn’t happen because everything went right. It happens because, year after year, someone chose not to quit.

I recently read a line that stopped me cold:

“Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing.” — Laurie Buchanan, PhD.

Read that again. Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing.

We don’t get to call the things happening to us or around us “problems” if we’re not doing anything to change them. At some point, we have to call the majority of them decisions. And the moment we own them as decisions; we gain the power necessary to change them.

That truth applies to a newspaper celebrating thirty years. It applies to a business. It applies to marriage and family. And it absolutely applies to our community.

Growth and success, real success, isn’t accidental. It isn’t convenient. It doesn’t show up because you got lucky or had good intentions. It shows up because someone was willing to sacrifice, stay late, get up early, make hard choices, absorb criticism, and keep going anyway.

That’s not luck. That’s choice. Which leads me to the other thing that has been on my mind lately. If we’re all being honest right now, our world feels kind of heavy.

Fraud. Contention. Media manipulation. War. Anger. Division at every turn. We can keep blaming. Or we can ask a harder question: What am I choosing by not changing how I might be contributing to all of it? Omission is a powerful thing…

The chaos we see “out there” often reflects what we’ve tolerated within. If we want a stronger community, a stronger nation, a stronger future, it starts with individuals willing to choose differently and treat others differently. Who’s with me?

Life is short. Most of us have lived more years than we have left. That’s not morbid, it’s motivating.

So, here’s my challenge:

Pick one thing you’ve been tolerating, in your habits, in your attitude, in how you show up for others. Tell yourself the truth about it. Then choose again. Choose something better and focus your energy on it.

Get involved. Support something that makes our city stronger and safer. Volunteer. Mentor. Build. Give generously. Find a purpose greater than yourself; one that wouldn’t be the same without you.

That’s how institutions last thirty years. That’s how communities last even longer. And that, more than anything, is how success is built.

The choice, as always, is ours.