What's your fuel?

After LTM in NYC last semester, we were issued a challenge that I felt completely achievable. 20 exchanges each LC by December 31. My method would be simple: draw upon events in the world that, at their core, suffer from the problems and issues AIESEC actively goes after. As I looked at onto my LC, I talked about Iran's comments about Israel, about race riots in Australia, etc. I emphasized that the world is on fire, and that AIESEC, in my mind, is the solution. Have you ever sat on a hill, looked into the horizon, and thought, "the world is at my fingertips." As AIESECers, I challenge that view, and argue that the world is in our hands, and we are able to arrange and mold it until we reach Peace and the Fulfillment of Humankind's Potential.

In going after that goal, I focued on a pessimistic view of the world believing that discomfort would lead people to act. As DC moves into the Working for Good video conferences next week, my view and assumptions have been drastically challenged. Read this quote from Michael Strong, a W4G facilitator and very successful entrepreneur:

"Go ahead and listen to bad news, but remember to discipline yourself to keep a longer term perspective in mind, both with respect to the extraordinary progress that has taken place in the past as well as the extraordinary progress that can take place in the future, if we take initiative and work together."

The Maoist rebellions and riots in Nepal, the bombings in Egypt - we can't help but be sad, angry, and in the general damn-the-world-sucks mood. But can we? Through the W4G program, I've been introduced to the idea of thinking optimistically. Yeah, it doesn't sound novel or innovative, but for me it is. In the news today we see a lot of crazy stuff...death, wars, poverty, genocide, tc. But in reality wars with more than 1000 battle deaths are down by 80% in the last 2 decades, and global poverty is on the decline. We, humanity, are actually progressing, and progressing A LOT.

If you are training for a marathon year from now, and in 8 months from now you are not at the level you wanted to be at, are you going to keep going? Are you going to wait until the next year? What if you are at 8 months and you are at the level you wanted or above? Aren't you going to be inspired, motivated, and ready to do double what you thought you could? What if we applied that in all of our endeavors? If humanity realized how much progress we've made, wouldn't that feel liberating? Liberating enough to do more than we ever thought possible? Because it is possible?