4000 Saturdays Blog

There is a lot in the news about the world crisis we face. It’s on many scales – food prices, oil, petrol/gas, the environment, instable financial and property markets, mass consumption, population… I talk with many people who are quite burdened with these “problems”. On the one hand we want to enjoy our lives, but on the other this big dark cloud hangs over us, our children and the human race.

Think about the irony for a moment… There’s a danger that we spend our time alive so worried about the end of the world, that we lose the very life we so preciously want to protect.

During a talk I was trying to sum up this irony that many of us live, and finally found the words that summed it up. I finished the talk saying:

“Do not fear death, but embrace your mortality so that when you die you will not have lost your life”

If you don’t get it first off, keep reading it. I’ve grow to like this quote so much that I think I’d want this written as my epitaph.

We become what we focus on all day long. Some of the trends I see in people who have become consumed by the world’s “problems” are:

1) It starts to show in everything they do and focus on

2) It starts to show up in every conversation you have with them

3) They become consumed by the “problem” and keep seeing more problems.

4) If they are not experts in controlling worry and fear, you start to see it affecting them emotionally on the inside as well as well as their health.

5) When you ask them, they don’t have any solutions

Just like if you think of a red car, you’ll start to see red cars everywhere you go, the same is true of the world’s “problems”. I’m not denying that red cars exist, They do, but it’s time to change the word “problem” to “challenges”.

It’s also time to accept these challenges and start focusing on solutions. If we can focus more on finding solutions than detailing and reporting on the problem, maybe we’ll start seeing solutions. Which camps do you want to be in? The Problem Camp or The Solutions Camp? From all the cartoons I watched as a kids I think I know which camp the Superheros would hang out in. And we all know who eventually ends up saving the world.

It’s time to get INSPIRED! We need leaders who will inspire with us with solutions! We need everyone to stop focusing on the problem and if they open their mouth, offer an idea. We need people who refuse to dwell on the horrible things that might happen if we don’t sort our world out. Worry is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.

The number one problem facing the world today is not the melting ice caps, consumption, over-population, famine, food prices or instable financial markets. It’s what we think and what we focus on. And that’s the one things ALL of us can change, in an instant.