I watched the SpaceX video on Tuesday where Elon Musk presented his vision for a colony on Mars, making us an interplanetary species and establishing a back-up of the human race in case civilization on this planet falls apart (which it probably will eventually). He has the timeline all figured out, and this announcement isn’t just a sci-fi dream anymore, it's actually happening. I couldn’t stop thinking about it all week, because if Elon Musk can start a civilization on Mars, then I can definitely learn a back tuck and run a 5k. In fact those goals seem infinitely trivial in comparison. I felt inspired to think big, and I think you should too.
What do you REALLY want to accomplish in life? What’s your vision for a better world? What do you want to be remembered for? What big problem can YOU solve?
I had some fun this weekend dreaming up a better future, and this is what I came up with…
What if you never had to go for a checkup at the doctors, because you could do it at home with your own device? We would be so focused on prevention that we would catch most mental and physical illnesses before any symptoms actually manifested. What if you could accurately monitor your health on your own, and make changes that kept you at your healthiest, instead of just well enough?
What if you could get effective therapy from the palm of your hand?
What if our education system emphasized emotional intelligence, self awareness, confidence, goal setting and building habits, gratitude, self discipline, leadership skills and the ability to solve big problems? What if every high schooler was required to live in a different part of the world before heading to college?
What if there was free internet globally, and through the internet universal access to education? What if there was software that kids around the world could use to teach themselves how to read, completely eliminating illiteracy?
What if the majority of our cities’ food were grown in biodiverse urban farms? City kids would grow up knowing exactly where their food came from, and the energy and costs for transportation would be practically zero. Maybe we’d use the same technology to grow food here as we do on Mars - indoors, all year round, using closed loop energy systems.
What if technology replaced the need to destroy ecosystems for raw materials? Our energy could be produced completely from geothermal, wind, water, and solar sources. And we wouldn’t clear land for food production either, because we’d make sustainable agriculture more profitable than monocultures.
What if you didn’t just join a gym if you wanted to get fit? What if instead the typical thing to do was to join a free outdoor workout class in your city or town? Anyone could join and you’d be held accountable for attending each week.
Obviously these ideas reflect just the causes I’m most interested in, and they’re not really original ideas. If you click the links, you’ll see there are people already working on these problems - but there are people working on almost every problem and that doesn’t mean you can’t have an impact.
My friend has a great quote on her Facebook page: “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that do.” I think if we can decide on our own BIG GIANT LIFE GOAL (as I like to call it), the process of achieving it should be just the same as for any other goal: What’s the first step? Who should I connect with?
And does it really matter if we don’t get all the way there during our lifetime, as long as we’re continually striving for improvement? Let’s do more and think less, stop dreaming and go do something amazing!
- Claire
What do you REALLY want to accomplish in life? What’s your vision for a better world? What do you want to be remembered for? What big problem can YOU solve?
I had some fun this weekend dreaming up a better future, and this is what I came up with…
What if you never had to go for a checkup at the doctors, because you could do it at home with your own device? We would be so focused on prevention that we would catch most mental and physical illnesses before any symptoms actually manifested. What if you could accurately monitor your health on your own, and make changes that kept you at your healthiest, instead of just well enough?
What if you could get effective therapy from the palm of your hand?
What if our education system emphasized emotional intelligence, self awareness, confidence, goal setting and building habits, gratitude, self discipline, leadership skills and the ability to solve big problems? What if every high schooler was required to live in a different part of the world before heading to college?
What if there was free internet globally, and through the internet universal access to education? What if there was software that kids around the world could use to teach themselves how to read, completely eliminating illiteracy?
What if the majority of our cities’ food were grown in biodiverse urban farms? City kids would grow up knowing exactly where their food came from, and the energy and costs for transportation would be practically zero. Maybe we’d use the same technology to grow food here as we do on Mars - indoors, all year round, using closed loop energy systems.
What if technology replaced the need to destroy ecosystems for raw materials? Our energy could be produced completely from geothermal, wind, water, and solar sources. And we wouldn’t clear land for food production either, because we’d make sustainable agriculture more profitable than monocultures.
What if you didn’t just join a gym if you wanted to get fit? What if instead the typical thing to do was to join a free outdoor workout class in your city or town? Anyone could join and you’d be held accountable for attending each week.
Obviously these ideas reflect just the causes I’m most interested in, and they’re not really original ideas. If you click the links, you’ll see there are people already working on these problems - but there are people working on almost every problem and that doesn’t mean you can’t have an impact.
My friend has a great quote on her Facebook page: “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that do.” I think if we can decide on our own BIG GIANT LIFE GOAL (as I like to call it), the process of achieving it should be just the same as for any other goal: What’s the first step? Who should I connect with?
And does it really matter if we don’t get all the way there during our lifetime, as long as we’re continually striving for improvement? Let’s do more and think less, stop dreaming and go do something amazing!
- Claire
