Mighty cooperators,
Today I have a cautionary tale.  Let me start by saying this…
I don’t think it’s an overly profound statement to say we are bombarded these days by things we have no control over.
We ingest a torrent of concerning images and situations daily courtesy of social and commercial media.
In our cities, we are exposed to many problems that seem to be growing. 
The rate of social change, or lack thereof, in our lives can make our heads spin.
We can really get buried beneath all this; it’s just so much — our hyper awareness of problems that are out of reach for us to do anything about.
And then we go to work…
When we hit the door of our co-op, we already might feel disempowered and burdened by a world of problems we feel we have no power to solve.
And, as I’ve seen from my experience, over time, we can become mentally conditioned to see mostly unsolvable problems – just like we see in the world at large. 
And because of this unconscious conditioning our minds and hearts can become captured by all those seemingly unsolvable problems we see at our co-ops. It can be anything, turnover, low sales, unstable margin, unending call outs, bad bosses, etc.
Our perspective has narrowed causing us to see only limitations and faults in others.
So, here’s the cautionary part of this tale:
When we hit the door at our co-ops we need to tune in with ourselves to get right in our own minds and hearts.
Right there, we need to know what we have influence on and what we have no control over. 
We need to focus on that part of this co-op world where we can make a difference with our hearts and minds…the rest we let go for now.
Where we have influence and maybe control is where we need to face our challenges.
That’s where we need to have positive connections with others.
That’s where we’ll find our growth and learning.
That is where we will act, taking small steps wherever and however we can.
Let’s not fall prey to feeling spaced-out and powerless even though lots of forces in the outside world would like to keep us there.
Action starts in our power to focus on things we can do, not on things we can’t.
And ultimately our happiness at work will live in making those successful small steps to a known goal.
Focusing on unsolvable problems we have no control over, dampens our spirit, makes things a burden and hassle, and limits our efforts to become the people we want to be.
And once we overthrow this burden our efforts can join together in beautiful ways carrying great things forward to meet our challenges. Step by step with focus.
I believe it’s really who we all are and want to be.