Working With Soul:
Give life your ‘Best Shot’

Dewitt Jones, one of America’s top professional photographers, encourages us to celebrate what’s right with our world. Drawing from his twenty-year career with National Geographic, Jones has created a fabulous documentary entitled “Celebrate What’s Right With the World.” As a photographer, Jones took roll after roll after roll of film to capture the “best shot.” As he focused his heart, mind and lens on his subject, he asked himself “What am I falling in love with?”

In his documentary, Jones asked his corporate audience to do the same—to look at their professional (and personal) lives in much the way a photographer does his subject: by positioning his camera at one angle and then another; by adjusting his lens; by turning this way and that for a fresh view. “Then, do what I do,” he said, “Ask yourself, ‘What am I falling in love with?’ Enhance that,” he challenged. “Enhance that!” he repeated. In other words, what are you drawn to with wholeheartedness?

If you want to rise above average,
work toward creating and capturing your “best shot.”

All over the world, Jones found that people are accustomed to looking for what is wrong. “Look for what’s right,” he pleaded, “Sure, there’s plenty wrong. But, looking for what’s right is what connects us with the best (in people, organizations, community, family, even [in] ourself).” In his travels,

Jones also found that looking for what’s right
is what unleashed energy to fix what’s wrong.

Accepting his challenge, I quickly learned how easily and often a mind can and will gravitate to what’s wrong. I also learned the more I practice his “best shot” approach, the quicker my gut tells me when I’ve jumped track.

Your action challenge this month is to celebrate what’s right with your world—at home, at work, and in the people and circumstances around you. When your mind strays, rein it in and refocus. Jones assures us (as all the great faith traditions have done for centuries) that even in the face of critics and challenges, celebrating what’s right gives way for surprisingly new possibilities and opportunities to emerge. We know he’s right. Let’s prove him right: Let’s do it!

Next time I’ll share three more steps Jones offers for creating, living and celebrating your “best shot.”

You can purchase or rent Dewitt Jones’s program “Celebrate What’s Right With the World” (visit his web site at www.dewittjones.com) or, you can do as I did and check it out from your local library (interlibrary loan system) and view it for FREE. You will not be disappointed.