DETERMINATION 101
Image Credit: Juan Labreche/AP/REX/Shutterstock
I’ll be fierce for all of us.
Deb Haaland (1960—) is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for New Mexico's 1st congressional district since 2019. From 2015 to 2017 she was chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico. Haaland's district includes most of Albuquerque and most of its suburbs.
Haaland is a lawyer and a single mother who worked on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008 and has been a vocal advocate for abortion rights and universal health care. She has also endorsed the elimination of ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. She even got her famous “Pueblo Salsa” jarred as a marketing and campaign tool; it was on sale at the Smithsonian gift shop. She later sold her company to dedicate her efforts to politics.
Haaland's life is imbued with the lessons of her ancestors who stressed the importance of leading this country toward the sustainable management of its resources and public lands while celebrating its cultural heritage.
There is nothing new about Indian Country getting short shrift in the media, in politics, or in life in general. Haaland, although a progressive Democrat, has been successful in attracting bipartisan support for her initiatives in Congress. Seeking mutually beneficial community partnerships, Haaland aims to improve American Indian communities' access to and representation and to develop innovative approaches to achieve mutual goals.
Conversation starts at 13:07. Join the Institute of Politics in observance and celebration of Native American/Indigenous Peoples Heritage Month featuring Congresswoman Deb Haaland (NM-01, D), a member of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe and moderated by Linda Bilmes, Daniel Patrick Moynihan Lecturer of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and former US Dept of Interior National Park Service Advisory Board member. The discussion will focus on the Congresswoman's efforts to address pressing issues of climate change, the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Native communities, and reflect upon being one of the first two Native American women to serve in Congress.
DETERMINATION 101
Set a goal and focus on its achievement by resisting all distractions and being persistent.
Being determined requires perseverance and tenacity. It means the actions we are taking are consistent and deliberate.
Determination means we can resist distractions. When we are determined we will stay the course and go the distance. We will concentrate on objectives with stamina and resolve. Determination is a quality that holds us accountable, prohibits us from quitting even when our goal takes a long time to accomplish.
Experiences offering immediate gratification bombard us daily, rewarding our impatience. We want too much too soon, and our wanting contributes to losing sight of a critical truth: In life, anything that is worthwhile takes time. Determination gives us the focus to stick with it. Determination is patience with action. It's not wanting and waiting. It's waiting while we take action on a specific plan.
Goals and plans are essential, but they must be realistic. Simplistic goals don't motivate. Idealistic goals become counterproductive. Unrealistically high goals stifle initiative. Difficult-but-realistic goals, an appropriate challenge, produces a mission-directed life.
We all encounter obstacles along the way. Being aware of what is happening around us and remaining open-minded about how we will approach our goal allows us to adjust our methods and stay flexible. We must be malleable.
We get stronger through adversity. Muscles work against heavy objects—that's adversity. We get stronger mentally through progressive difficulty as we learn. We don't start with trigonometry. We start with basic math. Over time, we gain the building blocks of knowledge—algebra, geometry, calculus—that help us understand more complex subjects like trigonometry. Losing loved ones may be the hardest event we experience in our lives. We slow down, but we don't stop living. Having known them—even if they were demanding—made us stronger, better people. We gained an additional perspective and sharpened our resolve.
When we experience the challenge and change of life, we increase our strength morally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Therefore, we cannot dread difficulty nor allow it to stop us from reaching our true potential.
How do we see past distractions and debilitating setbacks to increase our determination toward goals?
PRACTICE:
How do you deal with people and events that hinder you from accomplishing your main goals?
How do you need to change the way you react to distractions?
Describe a time when you successfully pushed through distractions and difficulties to reach your goal.
COMMIT:
[ ] I commit myself to be focused on the main goal of reaching excellence and to avoid anything less important that would keep me from reaching my greatest potential.
FURTHER READING/ WATCHING
Requiem for the American Dream: (documentary) is the definitive discourse with Noam Chomsky, widely regarded as the most important intellectual alive, on the defining characteristic of our time - the deliberate concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a select few. Through interviews filmed over four years, Chomsky unpacks the principles that have brought us to the crossroads of historically unprecedented inequality - tracing a half-century of policies designed to favor the most wealthy at the expense of the majority - while also looking back on his own life of activism and political participation. Profoundly personal and thought-provoking, Chomsky provides penetrating insight into what may well be the lasting legacy of our time - the death of the middle class and swan song of functioning democracy. A potent reminder that power ultimately rests in the hands of the governed, REQUIEM is required viewing for all who maintain hope in a shared stake in the future.
American Indian Politics and the American Political System is the most comprehensive text written from a political science perspective. It analyzes the structures and functions of indigenous governments (including Alaskan Native communities and Hawaiian Natives) and the distinctive legal and political rights these nations exercise internally. It also examines the fascinating intergovernmental relationship that exists between native nations, the states, and the federal government. In the fourth edition, Wilkins and Stark analyze the challenges facing Indigenous nations as they develop new and innovative strategies to defend and demand recognition of their national character and rights. They also seek to address issues that continue to plague many nations, such as notions of belonging and citizenship, implementation of governing structures and processes attentive to Indigenous political and legal traditions, and the promotion and enactment of sustainable practices that support our interdependence in an increasingly globalized world.
Caste: In this book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a comprehensive portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, well-researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more.
In Her Words…
“I’ll be fierce for all of us, for our planet, and all of our protected land. This moment is profound when we consider the fact that a former secretary of the interior once proclaimed it his goal to, quote, ‘civilize or exterminate’ us. I’m a living testament to the failure of that horrific ideology.”—The Guardian
“If we're not protecting our women and we're not protecting our girls and we're not protecting the most vulnerable people in this society, who are we as a country?”
“Immigrants and Native Americans have made our country what it is today, and if we've learned anything through these hundreds of years - it should be that we can accomplish more when we work together.”
“In spite of our agonizing history, Native American people find much to celebrate. The songs, the dances, the culture and traditions surrounding planting and harvests, the prayers that are sent upward for healing and peace, and the welcoming of children into our families, are all reasons for us to keep moving forward with optimism.”
“The tenets of my cultural teachings are rooted in our commitment to lift up every community member so that no one is left behind. Work and food were shared equally. Through our commitment to community, we care about children, even when they aren't ours, and we want our old folks, and yours, to live their last days in dignity and comfort.”
“November is Native American Heritage Month, and a good time to honor the legacy of our ancestors, but every day we should stop to think about our country's beginning and that the United States would not exist if not for a great deal of sacrifice, blood, and tears by Indian Tribes across the country.”
“I believe Native Americans, women, and all of us deserve representation, and that we all need to fight with everything we have to make it so.”
“We don't have time to play politics with people's lives or the planet's future.”
“In 1881, my dad's grandparents, who were Norwegian farmers, immigrated to the United States - the same year my great grandfather from Laguna Pueblo was put on a train to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.”
“Everything depends on our ability to sustainably inhabit this earth, and true sustainability will require us all to change our way of thinking on how we take from the earth and how we give back.”
“We must shift our thinking away from short-term gain toward long-term investment and sustainability, and always have the next generations in mind with every decision we make.”
What we don’t see on the resumes we review or the job descriptions we want is the litany of emotional entanglements we bring to our roles, uninvited, to the team and organizations we work in. Alongside technical skills, people who can master a range of subjective skills are better able to influence, deal with ambiguity, bounce back from setbacks, think creatively, and manage themselves in the presence of setbacks. In short, those who learn lead.
Observing subjective qualities in others past and present gives us a mental picture for the behaviors we want to practice. Each figure illustrates a quality researched from The Look to Craftsmen Project. When practiced as part of our day-to-day, these qualities will help us develop our mastery in our lives and work.
References:
Credé, M., Tynan, M. C., & Harms, P. D. (2016). Much ado about grit: A meta‐analytic synthesis of the grit literature. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Advance online publication.
Schmidt, F. T.C., Nagy, G., Fleckenstein, J., Möller, J. and Retelsdorf, J. (2018). European Journal of Personality, Same Same, but Different? Relations Between Facets of Conscientiousness and Grit