Do you look at the world and know it could be better? Do you long for an end to conflict?
We’ve already begun the journey.
Paul Hawken, in his book Blessed Unrest, described one of the most extraordinary phenomena of our time: a movement of movements. Over the course of 15 years, he’d given nearly a thousand talks about the environment. Afterwards, people would come up and talk with him about the mission or cause they were working on. They’d talk with such passion about restoring a river or helping school children. And they’d give him a business card with the name of their organization.
After a week or two on the road, Paul would come home with hundreds of business cards. He’d look at each one and think about these dedicated people who were putting their energy into making the world a better place in their little corner of it. Then he’d put the cards in a drawer.
This collection of business cards grew, filling drawers and paper bags. They numbered in the thousands. Eventually it dawned on Paul that what was happening here was something amazing, something that had never happened in the history of mankind: ordinary people are organizing themselves to address the problems humanity is facing. And not just one or two groups here and there, but thousands of organizations were represented just in the bags in his house. Some of these organizations are tiny—one or two people addressing an issue in their neighborhood. Others are quite large, dealing with issues on a global scale, like world hunger. Everywhere, ordinary people are organizing to make the world better.
Paul began to wonder how many citizen organizations there really are in the world. He started researching to find out. In 2007, he estimated there were probably one or two million organizations worldwide. The subtitle of his book says it all: “How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being—and Why No One Saw It Coming.”
My question is this—what if this movement of movements had a vision? What if the guy working to save the old growth forest and the woman working with refugee children knew they were on the same team? What if we had a vision for our future as humanity, as a human race? What if we could create a global prosperous civilization where everyone contributes and everyone benefits—where everyone matters?
Just think what we could accomplish! If you knew in your bones that whatever you were doing, whether tutoring children or preserving the rainforest, was helping all of humanity move forward… just think how powerful that would be!
All of our efforts would be connected. We’d find new ways to collaborate and multiply our efforts. We’d unleash potential in ourselves—and in individuals across the planet—that we didn’t even know existed. You know how powerful it is to be part of a team that really pulls together and gets the job done. Imagine what that would be like on a global scale—when we see ourselves as a human team that pulls together and gets the job done. Imagine… you could travel to any corner of the planet and jump right in, because we are all working toward the same goal.
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