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This Post by Justin Dixon Photo Courtesy of Tiago Ribeiro

This modern age is really amazing. We are able to learn more, teach faster, move faster, and do more in less time with less effort than ever before. Yet at the same time we are more stressed, less connected, and many of us are on information overload. I love this modern world, but at the same time all this technology, information, and colliding cultures does bring with it four great challenges: our beliefs, our boundaries, reflection, and action. We must as individuals and as a group learn to rise up to these challenges; not only must we rise up to these challenges for our own lives, but for the world we are making.

Challenge Number One. We must take  responsibility for our own beliefs, not just what we believe but how we act upon what we believe.

There is enough information to support or cast doubt on any idea you want to. Credibility is often based on who has the most funding to use in their presentation rather than on definite testable fact. At the same time we are constantly being bombarded by messages telling us what to do, what to buy, who we must be, and what others must do. The problem comes in with how many of us assume we are right. While there is nothing wrong with believing something is true we must learn to keep our beliefs and actions as far as our authority rightfully goes, within our life first. For example, I am a pesco-vegetarian. The only meat I eat is fish and eggs. I believe the food is better for you, that it tastes better, and if you choose your sources well is more humane. I have no authority however beyond telling you why I made this choice for myself to force you to do the same thing. I’ve seen person after person get offended at someone doing something that goes against there beliefs even though it causes them no physical nor monetary harm. We even make a point to vote for laws enforced by guns and fines to make people conform to our belief systems moral code. You only have authority over how you live your life, and how you demonstrate the effectiveness of your beliefs. If we can not learn to be open and live our own lives than we will be dooming ourselves to fight people who can and should be our allies in making this world what it could and should be.

Challenge Number Two. We must take charge of how to set our own boundaries.

Technology has made more things attainable than ever before, and this technology is growing every day, but where do we set our limits. As more messages are blasted to us daily, and more people are able to share more we must learn how to discern truth from lies, necessary from unnecessary, valuable from non-valuable. People can and will cuss up a storm, say offensive things, speak lies while believing them to be truth, and promote bad ideas. It is not up to the government to stop them, it is not up to the pope, it is not up to anyone but those taking action. We must learn to say no when someone makes an unreasonable request. We must learn to choose our channels of information. Most importantly we must learn when to tell ourselves no:

No to that extra doughnut.

No, I will not skip my workout today.

No, I will not settle.

No, I will not give up.

No, I will not do something that does not add value in one way or another to my limited time on this planet.

Its up to us.

Challenge Number Three. We must learn to take time to reflect.

Between cell phones, twitter, e-mail, face-book, home phones, and our packed schedule it can be very difficult to find even just a few minutes genuinely to ourselves, but we must make this a priority. According to Howard Gardner’s Leading Minds every great leader in history has made the habit of taking some time to themselves each day. Go for a walk without your cell phone (tell someone where you are going and how long you should be gone). Tell your family your going to close the door for 10 minute and that you would like just that small period of time for some quiet. Setting a timer so others know when its been long enough can help with this. We are constantly being bombarded with messages and rushed around everywhere by our busy schedules.

It is now more important than ever to take the time to:

…work out what messages we genuinely believe and why.

…let our thoughts and emotions catch up.

…give ourselves a moment to not be rushing everywhere.

…learn how to be comfortable with who we are.

…decide what kind of world we really want.

We need this because the times move forward whether we are ready for them to do so or not, and the actions we take whether reflected on or not are still the actions that are building what tomorrow will look like.

Challenge Number Four. We must act.

Once we have determined that we are responsible for ourselves before anyone else, once we have learned to set our own boundaries, and once we’ve taken the time to figure out what we really want to do, and what we really believe in doing we must not let it end there. The greatest idea in the world means nothing if it is not acted on. We must find the courage to speak up when it is needed even when no one else will. We must find the inner strength to follow our own conscience even if the world is running the other way. We must take action to make sure that as this technology grows faster everyday and as our world changes more every day that it becomes a world worth living in. Even if you can only do a little towards that do it, its up to you to make sure that you take care of your end on the future we are making today.

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” ~Dalai Lama XIV

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