Making the World a Better Place

Happy Friday you wonderful humans.

Earlier this week, Simon and I facilitated a workshop for a group of 180 Year 11 students.

A bunch of 16/17 year-olds about to embark on a journey through their last two years of high school into the real world.

Thinking back to 2008 when I was beginning year 11, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to be or do when I grew up, let alone have any real comprehension about how the world worked. (Only a little has changed in 13 years)

I believe the societal pressure we put on young adults to know who they want to be and what they want to do as they are going through school is ludicrous. Adolescence a minefield as is, and creating more anxiety and doubt around the future does not create high functioning, resilient humans.

I think we should be facilitating ways for kids to identify and cultivate their strengths so that they can truly find the things that make them happy because if you love what you do, you'll show up and do the work and contribute to making the world a better place.

I could talk about this for hours, but best I get to the point...

Part of our workshop was talking through how to cultivate meaningful goals, to help these students make good decisions as they navigate the next few years of their lives. This is a goal-setting system that we use at times at Virtus and I think it is immensely beneficial. If you haven't been through it, let me introduce ABC Goal Setting.

ABC Goal setting is a simple but powerful method of identifying what you want to achieve and what you need to do to achieve it. Follow this process, answer the questions, and If you'd like to spend some time on this with me, hit the reply button to this email.

Step 1: A Goals
What do you want, that you already have?
What do you need to do to keep these things?
This is an opportunity for gratitude and perspective. If you keep doing what you are doing, you will maintain these A goals. It might be a relationship, or your health and wellbeing, reflect on the work you're putting in, because it's working.

Step 2: B Goals
What do you want, that you don't have?
What are the steps to get there?
Most goals fit into this category. These goals should be shaped by your desires, and supported by your allies. Pick your goal eg Buy a house, and reverse engineer the steps to achieve it. If you don't know the steps, enlist the support of the people around you. It is not unknown how to acquire a B goal, it’s identifying and ticking the boxes; it’s about building a roadmap and taking the steps to get there.

Step 3: C Goals
What do you want that both scares and excites you?
What are two steps to get you closer?
This is The Good Stuff. The big hairy audacious goals that would scare the pants of you if you were to achieve them. You have the ability to take ownership over what you do with your life and chasing C goals by building on your B goals will help you do this. These goals are difficult to identify, but when you do, they will help you identify the path you want to walk. You don't need to see every step you need to take, just the next couple, as you take these steps, the next ones will reveal themselves.

At the end of the day, decide the kind of person you want to be, and prove it to yourself daily by doing the things that person would do.

The more you become this person, the better your world will become, and through osmosis or some other phenomenon, the world around you will too become a better place for the rest of us... which we love.

Be amazing.

Wallace