Attaining the Unattainable

I was among 60 people who created MATForce, a volunteer coalition to reduce drug and alcohol abuse in Yavapai County, Arizona. After formulating a mission statement, the group developed a three-year action plan. Since youth are MATForce’s primary focus, I stressed the need to reemphasize the importance of preserving the family unit.

The numbers are scary.

• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states, "Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse." 
• Children growing up in single-parent households are at a significantly increased risk for drug abuse as teenagers.
• Children who live apart from their fathers are 4.3 times more likely to smoke cigarettes as teenagers than children growing up with their fathers in the home.

These are only three of a long list of equally dire statistics.

Earlier this year – MATForce’s fourth year – the members of the Executive Committee and most of the original 60 met to review the coalition’s progress and draft new three-year and five-year plans. Preservation of the Family Unit was the only item in the original plan not addressed and is not in any form in the two future plans.

“Tightening up divorce laws is an area where we won’t succeed; it’s unattainable,” more than one Executive Committee member told me.

Man soaring like a bird was once “unattainable.” We now jet through the sky all around the world without thinking twice about it.

A human being standing on the moon was once “unattainable.” Between 1969 and 1972, 12 men left their footprints on Earth’s natural satellite.

Having a man-made object leave our solar system was once “unattainable.” In 1990, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 flew past the orbits of Neptune and Pluto.

"Unattainable" is not impossible, just difficult. How we look at that difficulty determines how successful we will be.

Thomas Alva Edison reportedly had 10,000 failures before finding that one combination that resulted in the electric light bulb.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work,” Edison said. “Many of life’s failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

As we approach 1-1-11, are you going to be one of the millions who will fail, or are you going to be the one who will attain the unattainable?