How to reach fulfillment

Tony Robbins suggests we need to be fulfilled, to do this we need to meet our needs. To do this we need to accept that our decisions affect our destiny and we need to thus understand our decision making process in order to make the right decisions for ourselves.

To do this first we need to decide what we want to focus on, in order to generate feeling. Then, we need to decide what this means to us and finally we need to decide what we are then going to do.

Once we have this then we need to pay attention not on the resources needed, but how we can be resourceful in meeting our needs. Ultimately to be fulfilled we need to go beyond meeting our basic needs (certainty, variety, significance, connection of love) to those needs of the spirit: growth and contribution beyond ourselves.

Watch this 20 minute video, if there is nothing else you do this year, and be inspired!

Responsible leaders need to appreciate others

Tony Robins suggests we need to not just understand what drives others, but we need to appreciate what drives others. Ultimately what drives someone can change; but first we need to appreciate others and what influences them, before anyone can change.

Responsible leaders need to influence others

Tony Robbins suggests you can only move yourself and others to action once you understand the invisible forces that shape ourselves and others. To do this we need to understand what influences people in the short-term (their state) and in the long-term: their NEEDS, their BELIEFS, and their EMOTIONS.

He suggests everyone has the same needs, but prioritizes them differently and this thus shapes who we are, along with our beliefs which shape how we will try to meet those needs.

Is being a charity, charitable?

I’m the first to admit most charities become so focused on what they are trying to change and who they are trying to help that they forget, as an organization, as a collective of individuals and as individuals, they also have responsibilities to society beyond their core activities, just like every other organization, business, government or otherwise.

Thus the need for social charities to consider their economic and environmental impact, for environmental conservationists to consider their social impact and so on. But, further to this, there is the issue of what is the charity’s contribution to society? Yes, it aims to contribute something by achieving its mission, but can it achieve more?

Without straying from its mission, can it utilize or leverage what it has to help society in other ways? Can it lend its office space, its staff skills, its communication channels etc to other organizations or individuals in society? It is about going beyond the ‘practice what you preach’ debate into the realm of ‘contribute all you can to improve society’

The role of arts in education for Sustainable Development

It is now best practice for workshops and lessons to be interactive and learner-centred; indeed occasionally role-plays and the like are utilized to increase the ‘learning by doing’ element of such a workshop.

The next step is to go beyond ‘learning by doing’ and ‘learning by expressing’ but to recognize the power for the arts (music, art, theatre etc) to connect to people emotionally and sensually; to not just support co0ncepts of discovery, creativity and innovation, but to inspire. The arts can transcend gaps (in student abilities, in time, in cultures) that other forms of communication cannot and can play a key role in not just improving the educational experience, but in relating education to sustainable development.

Through arts individuals can feel a part of something bigger, can connect to other people and to society and can better value intangible elements in life. They can of course also develop key skills required for a sustainable society such as creativity and communication; but more importantly they can be inspired, inspire others and envision a sustainable World.

Once such a world is envisioned, the arts can be used to inspire action, as communication tools and as enablers. They can be used not just to help people think but to help people feel and to influence how they behave. There is a whole new world out there and the arts need to play a greater role in that World, starting with education.