Oprahs Big Give

Just thought I would let everyone know Oprah's new show called Big Give starts tonight on ABC. Looks to be an interesting premise to the show and I am interested to see how it plays out. Anything where the object is to give away money to people who need it and make a positive impact on the world in the process is alright in my book. If you have a minute tonight check it out.

Notes From Canada's Young Activists: A Generation Stands Up For Change - Book Review

I read a great book this week called "Notes From Canada's Young Activists: A Generation Stands Up For Change". It was compiled and edited by Severn Cullis-Suzuki, Kris Frederickson, Ahmed Kayssi, Cynthia Mackenzie and Daniel Aldana Cohen. The book is a series of essays by many young people making positive impacts all over the world but, who happen to be Canadian. Without listing everyone who participated in the book, I will say that there are some amazing people with incredible stories within its cover. If you are looking for inspiration on how you can impact the world and how you can find the courage to stand up for what you believe in, then look no further than this book. The twenty-five or so stories explain just how they have done what they do and even give some useful pointers on how you can do the same. I picked up my copy at Chapters but it is available at all major bookstores both online and on the shelf. It is an easy read but full of useful information to follow up on and learn more about. A section at the end gives a listing of websites and books that are very useful, especially here in Canada, for outlets and associations, among other things, that you can get involved with to help you become an activist as well. Maybe even one day in the near future you will be included in the second edition.

Here is a link to the book publisher which has the option to purchase: Notes From Canada's Young Activists: A Generation Stands Up For Change

Diversity in a Puzzle

I wrote a post the other day about how we need to start thinking about the world as a jigsaw puzzle. I haven't stopped thinking about it since. There are some holes in my idea that I want to clear up.

Diversity is a real treasure in this world. It is something that needs to be celebrated. I have an unbelievable gift in that I live in the worlds most multicultural city on the planet. Every day I go to school and my classmates represent the diversity that exists from all over the world. It is a true blessing to be a participant in this kind of society. The jigsaw puzzle also celebrates diversity. Every piece of the puzzle is different. No two alike in shape or in the part of the picture they fulfill. Every piece exists independently from the other pieces but they still coexist and work together for the greater good. The puzzle is accepting of pieces of all shapes, sizes, and colors because that is what makes the puzzle whole. The puzzle exists because of diversity and for diversity.

Every person also has the right to choose their own destiny. There is, I believe, a path on which we travel. However, the path is one we choose. I do believe that we have an innate connection with something and I call it purpose. We all have a purpose in this world - some more glorified than others - but we all have a place in the world. This purpose is what we all search for. Some people spend a lifetime trying to live but they lack the awareness to live a life with and on purpose. We choose which part of the puzzle we are but we are connected to a part of the puzzle. We are not forced into a predetermined size or shape, but we connect with a certain piece. When we find our place in the puzzle, the place we are meant to inhabit, then we exist with purpose and we allow others to follow suit. We represent our purpose and in doing so help others find their purpose. Our passion and belief in our purpose impacts others.

Interconnectedness. Jigsaw puzzle. Enough said? We are all interconnected. We exist in connection with one another. My decisions in life affect the people around me. It is that simple. We must all learn to understand that every action we make has repercussions. Every action has an equal reaction. If I choose to drive a car to school then the effect that has across the world is felt. The family that lives on an yet-to-be-discovered oil patch is in danger of losing their home because the land they live on continues to become more valuable to an oil company. The car manufacturer who employs workers around the world, from the mining that is necessary to produce the parts. It also has huge environmental implications as the car creates biproducts that risk the future of our planet for generations of people to come. A jigsaw puzzle exists with the knowledge that interconnectedness plays an important role. The puzzle is accomplished because of the interconnectedness of its pieces.

The more I think about the world like a jigsaw puzzle the more I think it is a good metaphore. What do you think?

Do You Believe?

It is the fundamental question that you must ask yourself: Do you believe the world can change? OR let me rephrase that: Do you believe YOU can change the world? If you answered no to either phrasing then reading anything I write will be of little use. It is essential for you to believe in both the ability of yourself to create change and the ability of the world to accept change. If you don't believe in either then your cynicism is in the wrong place. This space is reserved for the believers: the ones who wake up every morning ready to make an impact; they may not yet be confident enough to take on the challenge but they genuinely believe that change is possible; they go to sleep at the end of a long day of thinking about what they could do to make the world a better place and they have a sense of optimism that tomorrow may be the day for those ideas to take shape. You need to believe for yourself and the world needs people to believe in it.

The World is a Giant Jigsaw Puzzle

The world has been seen as a metaphorical pie: each person, country, state, etc, depending on whether we look at it from a micro or macro level, has tried to maximize their slice of the pie. It is no stretch to understand then how so many people live with so little. A pie is finite: If I take more then someone else naturally gets less. This is a classic example of the butterfly effect. For anyone who may not quite understand what this is, it is simply a theory that when a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world, a hurricane can occur halfway around the world. As science puts it: every action has a reaction.

Now what if we looked at the world like a giant jigsaw puzzle. A 6.6 billion piece puzzle to be exact. Each piece would represent a person. Each piece adds to the grand scheme of the puzzle that makes up the world. Now to put the puzzle together each piece must be put in its correct place according to the large picture. If one piece doesn't fit, then the whole puzzle cannot be finished. For this reason each puzzle piece has a purpose. Without that piece - no matter which one - the puzzle is incomplete without it.

Now when most people tackle solving a puzzle (although I may be speaking from my own experience) they start with a section - maybe even just a single piece - and they work from that. They may start by putting together the border and then working away, they may pick a distinct part of the puzzle and work from that, but they don't start without a plan in mind. They also have a picture of what the final, completed puzzle, should look like.

What if pieces of the puzzle refused to start fitting together? Wouldn't there be a chain reaction making it nearly impossible for other pieces to fit in their places? What if there was no picture for the finished puzzle? Would you have any clue as to where to start? Remember this isn't just a simple 1000 piece puzzle - we are talking about a 6.6 billion piece puzzle. All the confusion, anger, frustration exists because the pieces just wont work together. They are fighting to make sense of it all.

The picture on the puzzle box has always been my guide when solving the jigsaw puzzle. I need to see where each piece goes relative to the others. Unfortunately, we are trying to solve the puzzle without a picture. Without that picture each piece has trouble understanding what it's purpose is in the grand scheme of the whole thing. This is the way we live. We live without understanding of why or where we fit.

There are some people that exist and know who they are and know what they should do with their lives. These are the people that we look up to, that we choose to follow because when we are with them we have a sense of direction. We feel like we fit, like we are in the right place. When you have a 6.6 billion piece puzzle you need more than a few of these people to start making sense of things.

So the world is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Without a picture. Without the pieces understanding their purpose. We need the picture on the box. With any luck, one day we can come together to decide what the puzzle will look like. Until that time it is on each of us, each piece, to start making some sense of ourselves. If we can do that then others will naturally start to fit in around us. When we each take it upon ourselves to find our purpose then we allow others to do the same. That is what making the world a better place is all about.

So we can look at the world like a pie, and keep eating as much as we want without any compassion for others who also have to eat the pie. Or, we can look at the world like a puzzle and know that we have a place in a bigger picture, no one piece more important than the other, with no right to more space than another. Both philosophies work, but when you see the world as a puzzle you might just start to think about putting it together instead of tearing it apart. We all exist together and we need to try to recognize that we need each other to finish. We each have a right to exist, and we need to stop acting like we are the only ones invited to desert.

Positive Thoughts

Has anyone heard of the idea that "if you can't say something positive then don't say anything at all"? The world needs people to contribute to making it better, not knock it down. Why do people feel the need to speak up only when something is bad? The world is full of negative thinkers, they react to things that are bad, but do nothing to make things good. We need people to be both proactive and positive. We need people to spend their time looking for and creating positives, not making more negatives. It is an important paradigm shift that is essential to things becoming better. If you spend your time preoccupied by what is wrong in the world than you will have no time left to make it better. Stop knocking other people down for what they say and do and instead start saying and doing things for yourself. If we could all learn to appreciate each other than maybe we wouldn't feel so beaten down all the time. Stop spreading negative thoughts and start giving positive thoughts.

Aligning Who You Are With What You Do

Everyone has probably heard about 6 degrees of separation: the idea that only 6 people separate one person from someone on the opposite side of the world. Well I am going to do something similar with some concepts and show how they all connect.

We are judged by what we do not what we think about doing. No one can read our minds and understand how kind we want to be, or what good deeds we think about doing. People only know what it is that we do or show. In essence what people see is who we actually are.

As I am preparing myself for entering the working world in the not so distant future, I have been reading a lot about personal branding and career advancement. What is interesting to me about the topic is the idea of formulating brand recognition for who I am. We want to be known for being good then we need to make sure that is the image we portray. Not unlike Nike, who we are means something. People who meet us, or see us, instantly form an opinion of us. We need to act how it is that we want people to see us. We can't expect them to think we are kind unless we do infact act kind.

I have discussed the topic of Individual Social Responsibility, the idea that, not unlike a corporation, we affect our environment and community and it is up to the individual to do their role to make the whole system better off. A person would take a concept such as human rights and incorporate it into their entire life. From making sure that the breakfast cereal they eat in the morning, to the car they drive to work, to the job they do once they get there, that all of these take into account basic human rights.

Dreams are another favorite topic of mine. If you are reading this blog you probably dream about changing the world in some way. We often say things like, "That would be a really good idea", or, "One day I will have to try that." However, rarely do people act on these intentions. For some reason the connection between a dream and real life has been disconnected. We separate the our two worlds into fantasy and reality and for some reason we decided that dreams fit into the world of fantasy rather than reality.

Effort and persistence are two very redeemable characteristics. They separate those people who accomplish great things from those that wish they could accomplish great things. We get in the habit of waiting for life to help us instead of helping ourselves. We give up on ourselves. Sometimes it doesn't feel like it but when we fail to go after our desires we are giving up on ourselves. We are convincing ourselves that we aren't worth it, or we are incapable of achieving it. Life requires effort if it is to be what we wish it to be. There are a few exceptions, people who are born with a gift that requires very little water to bloom, but they are the exception not the rule. Life also requires persistence. When we get knocked down we need to get back up. When we fail we need to continue trying. Great lives are defined by these qualities.

Goals allow us to plan. They make us sort out the steps we will need to take to accomplish whatever it is that we want to. They provide milestones to tell us we are on track, and to give us stars to shoot for. Thats what a goal is - a star in the sky - and when we get there we are able to realize that we can aim high and still succeed. Those that lack goals lack the will for something great.

Authenticity is truth. It is something that most people judge people on. Are you genuinely a good person or only pretending to be one. If you are not authentic then people will know. You can't pretend to be someone you are not because you are doing everyone a disservice. People are turned off by a fake. Be true to yourself and others will trust you. They will follow you.

All of these things are internal to us but they manifest outside of us. They are things that happen inside our mind, heart, and soul, but when present, are there for all to see. We need to align who it is that we want to be with what we do. We need to align who we are with what we do. To change the world, to live a life that most only dream of, we need to be the change. We need to internalize before we can start to externalize. Decide who you are and then how that fits in with what you want for your life - What you want for the world. We need to BE authentic, goal oriented, put in effort and persistence, and dream. We need to align our brand and our individual social responsibility with the world we want. Becoming the person that changes the world is a prerequisite for actually changing the world. It wont happen unless you are in fact representative of the world you want to create. You can't tell someone to be something and expect them to become it unless you model it. We want a better world but we have to be willing to be that better world. Everything is related, including who you are with the world you wish to see.