Where's The Good News?
Energy Follows Attention
What we feed, grows. What we focus on creates action, change and momentum. When we focus on what works, more things work. When we focus on suffering, our differences, strife and the such, we see and experience more of the sort. Psychologists have proven time after time that when we focus on the strengths, we get stronger.
And yet, there is a huge disconnect between what we want to see and what we are digesting daily. Thanks to the ubiquity of information, we have the ability to choose what we read, watch and consume. That being true, our media and human nature have a negativity bias that encourages us to focus on what is broken, not what is getting fixed.
In the last half-century, humankind has faced enormous challenges, and we have overcome many longstanding, systemic issues. Poverty, infant mortality, and malnourishment have been dramatically reduced, while access to electricity and life expectancy have dramatically increased. Data clearly shows that the human condition is improving at an incredible speed. This progress happens because thousands of concerned citizens worked, and are working tirelessly to improve social conditions.
This sea of innovators are dedicated to solving societal challenges, yet their efforts rarely make headlines and their impact goes under acknowledged and underappreciated. Their stories are great, and I believe if we focused more on the work of these social innovators to the degree we focus on the discord and horrors of the day, we would enjoy a healthier, more inspired society, and the solutions we want would manifest more rapidly.
Good News
On my journey, I have met many incredible people solving big problems. These people provide me with inspiration and hope. The conversations I am in with these social innovators fill me new ideas, motivation and new perspectives. It has been an honor to be connected with these lions and lionesses, and I often wish I could share their words, ideas and results with my network. Well, now I can...
As of right now, I am launching a podcast where I will interview social innovators of all stripes, solving big problems through creativity, tenacity and...we will find out what else! The podcast is called, “Onwrd,” and I will produce two 30-minute episodes each month. Through these conversations, we will explore innovations in education, infrastructure, philanthropy, health, arts/entertainment, archaeology and more!
It is my hope that by highlighting social innovators, their ideas will spread more quickly, listeners will be positively provoked, we will learn, and we will inspire others to take action in pursuit of creating positive change.
If you have a person, project or industry you want me to cover, questions you want me to ask/answer or any feedback, please submit your ideas!