CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
Wednesday morning I had the pleasure of presenting Diamond Sharp Awards to four of our tremendous Airmen. The Diamond Sharp Award is a unique award in that it is direct recognition of sustained excellence and is given by the squadron supervisors who the members have the closest interaction with on a day to day basis - the first sergeants.
Senior Airman Claudio Collazo from the 437th Medical Group, Staff Sgt. Troy Davis from the 1st Combat Camera Squadron, Senior Airman Paul Androshick from the 437th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and Senior Airman Alexander Jones from the 437th Aerial Port Squadron all received a plaque and a coin presented by Command Chief Master Sgt. Mike Ivey and myself.
I had initially planned on making comments about leadership at the end of the ceremony but something jumped out at me as I listened to the first sergeants describe each of their respective award winners. Aside from being dedicated, hard-working professionals, these four Airmen shared one overwhelming common trait - a positive attitude that set them up for success. Whether their workday involved handling mundane tasks or major challenges, their attitude had a tremendous impact on the quality of their work and how they interacted with their customers and fellow Airmen.
Joe Paterno, the head football coach at Penn State for the last 43 years, once said the thing that makes average players good and good players great is attitude, and when it comes to a team, that same attitude is contagious. That's true in both a good and bad sense. Where a contagious positive attitude might inspire a team to achieve goals never dreamed possible, a pervasive negative attitude can poison even the greatest pool of talent.
The challenge for each of us is getting up every morning and putting ourselves in the right frame of mind to create that positive attitude as we head off to tackle whatever challenges the day might present. The good thing is it's your choice. While an isolated event may put you in a foul mood for a short period of time, your attitude - the way you approach your job or your life in general - is completely up to you.
Choose to be and stay optimistic and approach each day as an opportunity to accomplish something special. Think positively and expect success. Look at problems and setbacks as opportunities to improve. Don't dwell on the negative. We are all blessed to be part of a fantastic team here at Charleston. Whether you're on active duty, in the Reserve or a civilian employee, you are part of that team - and your attitude is contagious.
We have a tremendously important and challenging mission and we do it better than anyone. Embrace it. Resolve yourself to making things better today than they were yesterday - in your office, your program, your home. Make things better this month than they were last month, better this year than last. Always leave things better than you find them.
As our Diamond Sharp Award winners would attest, whether or not you create a winning attitude is completely up to you - but nothing is more important on your path to success!