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I Don’t Want To Get Up Or Even Get Involved: On March 13, 1964, a New York woman named Kitty Genovese was murdered. Winston Moseley stabbed her twice as she was trying to get to her front door. She screamed. The neighbors heard her screaming, but some said they thought it was a party. She staggered to the entrance of the building but couldn’t get in. Moseley came back ten minutes later. He stabbed her several more times, raped her, and stole her money. From start to finish, Moseley took a half-hour to kill her.
In the fifty years since the murder of Kitty Genovese, there has been much discussion about how many of the neighbors heard the screaming and what they thought it meant, who saw what and what they thought of it, and how much of what was going on the neighbors realized. None of the neighbors checked out what happened and then reported its seriousness to the police until it was over and Moseley was gone. We can say one part was the attitude of “I don’t want to be involved” in a case that killed an innocent woman.
Whatever happens to Your Neighbors Could Happen To You Too.
At least one of the neighbors, according to The New York Times, indicated that they did not want to get up or participate in any manner. Whether anyone told you that or not, the neighbors didn’t get involved enough to help save Kitty Genovese’s life. Could they have? Probably! We shouldn’t judge what we don’t understand. The neighbors might have been justifiably afraid that if they confronted the attacker, they would have been stabbed or killed also. Possibly no one heard enough or saw enough that they thought it necessary to investigate.
The fact is that many people don’t want to get up or get involved in things going on around them, and I’m not talking only of murder or even of crime or accidents. People may be afraid, or they might think that something is none of their business, and they might think there is nothing they can do. My message is that we are all involved. If we’re human and we’re alive, we’re concerned. We are part of everything that happens around us, whether we like it or not, or whether we care.
We Should Get Up and Show Concern At Least
I saw something in my neighborhood. From what I saw, I think a couple had been driving through the community, and a woman, angry at her boyfriend, jumped out of the car when it was slow enough to do so. The boyfriend parked and came after her. She screamed. One of my neighbors shouted at the man, and the man shouted back that he should mind his business. My neighbor told him in no uncertain terms that it was his business, and he was right. The couple shortly got back in the car and left.
We may not be able to do much about whether people living ten thousand miles from us starve to death, but we can care. Not get angry, but show concern. Caring about what happens to other people, even if we can’t do much about it, makes us better people and more able to do something valuable when we can and should personally get involved and make things better. It’s sometimes hard to relate to other countries and cultures and things that happen so far away. But they aren’t just news stories; they are people, and we should care.
Perhaps in the name of political correctness, too many of us look the other way around evil things. I’ve noticed that bad and evil have no problem, in the slightest, denouncing good. People should be at least equally willing to condemn the wrong. Whether bad and evil continue their progression depends a great deal on how much good people get involved.
Your deeds, not your talks, will determine your level of success.
The glue that holds a quest for greatness together is action. Action is motivating, it creates momentum, and it keeps you moving forward! Unfortunately, taking action is also a case of “easier said than done,” and it is the biggest roadblock for most people who want to succeed. Why is it so difficult to get up and fight for our dreams when we’re all capable of taking action?
- Most people lack the self-discipline to take action consistently.
- Too many people think that by staying positive and recognizing opportunities, success will happen.
- People have a lot of fear in their lives, which can keep them where they are in life.
- Many people see themselves as action-oriented when all they’re doing is following someone else’s plan. Action for success must be based upon things that are for your benefit!
Until you know why you’ve not taken action, you won’t know what hurdles to cross to achieve success! You may be aware that things like positive mindsets, goals, and accountability all contribute to the recipe for success. In the absence of a commitment to taking action or getting up act, any of these will be less valuable and will have a lesser impact on your life!
Never Stop At Just Dreaming, Get Up and Act In The Right Direction
Think about it this way. Imagine an upbeat person who does nothing to have that mindset help them. Imagine having the best and most inspiring goals you could come up with, yet they remain on a desk collecting dust. A good attitude and proper goals are only ‘calls to action.’ They should help you with taking action but don’t guarantee that you will. Action is something that builds upon other foundations of success and is thus just as important!
Action is itself something of a mindset, and it is often but should not be confused with being busy. I know many people who are self-proclaimed action takers, proud that they are always busy. Behind the scenes, these go-getters are still not getting what they hope for out of life. Why do you think that is? Maybe, their actions are directed at the wrong things. They may be busy, but they’re not busy doing something that will make them more successful.
Create Time Out of No Time To Get Up and Act
Think about how your time is spent each day. In addition to your work hours, how much time do you spend in bed, running errands, etc.? There probably isn’t a lot of free time left, is there? My challenge to you is to create 5-10 hours of free time a week that you can devote to achieving your goals. I don’t buy the excuse that you don’t have the time to make success happen. I know you’re capable of more!
Success is founded upon a commitment to becoming successful. A considerable part of this commitment is to devote time and effort to reach your goals. Once you find the time, you’ll never have an excuse for not taking action! So make this commitment for yourself and start taking action towards a successful tomorrow!
Some people have the attitude, “I do my job, and they pay me.” That’s it. They don’t get involved in making the company, the products, or themselves better. And yet they are interested in how good or bad the company is and how good or bad the products or services are.
Conclusion
Some people think, “You can’t fight city hall.” They don’t get involved in what will directly affect their lives and their lifestyles. And yet they are interested in how great their nation, state or province, city, and community are, whether they think so or not. If anyone pointed out that they (we?) didn’t care, they would say they do care.
They vote, and they watch the news. I’m amazed that people who say they care about the effect that government has on their lives so often make such bad decisions that will lead to terrible results, leading to severe problems for themselves and their children and grandchildren.
We’re involved. We are interested in our families, in our companies, in our communities, in our nations, in our societies, and really in everything that happens on our planet, for better or for worse. We can decide to make our goodness felt, or we can sit back and let anything happen to us and around us that comes along.