Leaving Necker Island and Reflections

A bit of a sad day to leave new friends, but we had our last breakfast together, swapped contact information, lots of hugs and headed back on the boat to Tortola for everyone's final destinations. 

One of the greatest gifts of life is to learn; learn from our experiences, learn from others' experiences, learn from new information, learn new skills and capabilities, learn where there is need for change, and learn more about ourselves and what truly brings us joy. 

I think one of the other greatest gifts of life are the moments which bring us deep meaning.  I have always believed that we are all hard-wired for meaning and consciously or unconsciously, we seek it out.  For the first time this week, I saw science make the same claim; with the fascinating results that are coming in from Citizen Science/crowd sourcing projects, like Zoonivese.  People's participation in Zooniverse is not paid, and they were taken completely by surprise as to the explosive success of Zooniverse and the power of crowd sourcing.  They have now done extensive studies on why so many people are contributing large amounts of time and effort.  The answer has come back categorically, that people do it because they feel they are part of something that they feel has meaning, that they are contributing to something that has value, and in particular, that their contribution are needed and valued.  Even more interesting...they tried some experiments where the participants got "points" for how many stars, or animals, or old navy logs etc. they were giving their assessment to, and to their surprise - their participation went down.  They no longer felt like they were doing something of meaning - rewarding with points was not satisfying, whereas the sense that their voluntary contribution (without specific recognition) was.  The crowd sourcing discussion we had, was one of the most in-depth ones as it was like a bright light of hope forward that we as humans not only have the capacity to incorporate more meaning in our lives, but the real desire to do so as well.

For me, this week was full of both of those gifts; 1) intense learning on so many fronts and 2) a connection to an even deeper meaning of what our potential is as humans; both individually and collectively, to make a difference in this world.   I feel like, not only did this week fill me up, but it has totally overflowed me with joy, ideas, energy, and excitement for what lies ahead and the possibilities that are there to create. 
 
I believe that the gift of learning can then increase 10 fold, if we then make its connection to how we can grow as individuals, as small groups, and as communities. Growth is not an absolute measurement but rather one in which it is relative to our current state.  One of the great experiences I had this week was related to that aspect of "relativity".   Certainly Richard does, but I have met several amazing people that have very high levels of influence in this world.  I joked with a couple of them, that by now knowing them, my normal six degrees of separation (you are six people away from you to know anyone else in the world) has been reduced to 2.  I certainly don't have that same level of influence, at that same scale or magnitude, and it could be easy for me to say that they are the ones that have to do the heavy lifting, and that they are the only ones who could effect change.   However, I have realized this week that I cannot use that as an excuse to abdicate myself from being a change agent from the level that I am at.  That is the beauty of relativity (thank you Einstein...P.S. one of my heros) - it only makes a difference from where you currently are.   You have all been wonderfully supportive reading my blog, but there may be some of you reading this, that may also have those similar thoughts...that it is great that I am doing this, but that you couldn't do this.   We don't have to be extraordinary...each of us is already special enough to be able to make a difference in ourselves, our families, and our communities.

If I can give you any inspiration today, is that....let's not judge that our actions must be "big" like others - they only have to be more than where we currently are, in order to change the world.  If everyone increased their relative contribution of making a difference, I can only imagine how we would collectively "shoot the lights out"!!!

The key themes of this conference and the group discussions were:

• What we are doing is not sustainable (destruction of environments, attitudes around waste/throw away society, food supplies, energy distribution/usage)
• We still have many historical practices that are keeping us limited in solutions (corruption, violence, inequality)
• There are amazing technologies, understandings, ideas that are coming forward that can address the above - but we need even more innovation and commitment to putting resources to creative solutions
• The quality of our collective future depends on our collective current actions, not just talking about it.

One of the deeply moving parts of last night was a round table of sharing what we were all going to do as "disruptive" actions when we got back to our respective communities.  Disruptive actions are out of our usual practices and are:

• things we can do, where there currently is no action
• things we can do that can make a greater impact
• things we can do as a collective to shift attitudes or awareness
• things that we can stop doing that would allow for other actions to show up

Some were specific, some were general, some were short term, some were long term, but everyone was so committed to make the magic that was felt here this week together, continue into connections of disruptive actions that will be transformative.  I am honored to be part of that community of souls that made that commitment this week.

I'm working on some of my ideas as to what my disruptive actions will be as I get home and back into my community of interactions and influence.  Normally a blog is just for information purposes, but I would like to extend an invitation out to anyone reading this:

If you would be interested in being part of a committed community that wants to see the world change for the better, that you would inspire yourself to do your "relative" disruptive actions, can you hit the comment button and leave a brief YES.  If you know of others that would as well, ask them to comment on the blog too.  It will help me formulate some of my ideas.  If you don't comment, I'm not offended at all, that will also help me feel what is the best way for me to make a difference.

Regardless, I hope my time at Necker Island has perhaps given you some inspiration to in whatever way that is for you...
BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD.  Mahatma Ghandi

FYI, I will be using this blog for now, to let everyone know what my disruptive actions will be in the next short while or to run some ideas by anyone that might be interested.