Life keeps throwing questions at us. And uncertainty too. It never seems to stop and it's impossible to ignore. Finding the answers has become easier with the advent of the internet: search engines, reverse image lookup, facial recognition, online language translation and Google Earth. This is all well and good when you have a few minutes to be entertained but what does it mean for your business, your career, your livelihood? One solution that works is to set up well-defined boundaries -- not an easy sell in today's free for all, cut to the chase 'how many friends do you have' communications environment -- to contain the problem. I have proven to myself that by breaking difficulties down to their core essence or essences I can make them easier to digest and eliminate large amounts of the noise that surrounds them. Solve the big issues by breaking them into smaller challenges and knock each one off over time. Using this technique, we, as individuals, will know how to do the next right thing for ourselves even if we don't know quite what that 'right' thing is yet. It's one solution and it the details are different for everyone.
But what about the big problems in the world: poverty, equality, corruption, environmental degradation and so on? How do we solve these enormous challenges as their effects swirl around and through our everyday lives, sometimes visible sometimes not visible? If we choose to help to solve them how do we keep our livelihoods intact? There is only so much time in the day. How do we create that perfect circle that feeds and gives, nurtures and grows with every decision we make?
First we discover and define the challenges by setting goals to take away their power over us. Then we prioritize and consider them in the context of the environment in which they currently exist. And finally, deconstruct them into smaller units. For our purposes here we will call these units projects. Each project aims to tackle each component of each challenge systematically until success is achieved. The 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals has mandated 17 Earth changing initiatives that everyone on the planet can get behind, participate in and grow from -- and better yet there is soon to be massive amounts of funding made available to enable these activities. The goals lay out a road map for success in all areas of our lives using our solution set as described above. For as we each help one another so too do we each help ourselves. The same logic applies to business. Use the Goals to isolate a problem. Seek funding to develop projects to meet the Goal. Everyone wins, but only if you can see the finish line. How is this accomplished? A well designed Project Plan is a good start.
Disclaimer: I have been involved on a full time volunteer basis (with a promise to be paid) for 5 years with a group of NGOs bringing change to the world through project development and funding, set to be made available through the United Nations any day now. As a result, I am currently in a precarious position with everyone from my landlord, to my family, to my ISP. No good deed goes unpunished.
See my upcoming post: There is no liquidity left in the system. The banks have taken it all.
It's cold out there, baby!