Coming from a teaching background, I am always brought back to thinking about my first graders. I started thinking about the idea of when you are little, you transform by the minute. Your brain is a sponge ready to take in the world. One day, you are an astronaut, the next day you are a ballerina; one day you hate Rosie with the bow in her hair, the other day you are chasing her around the playground because you are in love with her.
Why does the transformation process become so hard? As we get older, I think it becomes harder to open ourselves up to change. I am coming from a place of experience by the fact that I was "living blindly," resenting some of the choices I made with the people I surrounded myself with, and I didn't even think about the option to transform into the best version of myself. I feel that sometimes, we feel that we are set the way we are, and it is easier to accept this, then to start to evaluate all that needs to be changed within ourselves. There is a big issue here, as there are so many changes that need to be focused on around the world. Yet how we can even recognize these changes if we are so focused on ignoring the most important transformation within ourselves?
Facilitated, authentic, genuine relationship building for a bigger picture idea, as well as strategic content delivery, can help not only change an individual, but as a group, change the world.
I started to analyze the idea of "transformation" to create change and realized that two organizations around me were using this concept as their foundation. One nonprofit I have recently worked with, Team Rubicon U.S.A. "unites the skills and experiences of military veterans with medical professionals to deploy vanguard teams that bridge the gap in disaster response and since its creation in January 2010 has impacted not only thousands of lives -- in Haiti, Chile, Burma, Pakistan, Sudan, and here at home, in Vermont, Maryland, Missouri, and Alabama, it also provides a renewed sense of purpose for military veterans returning home after ten years of war." This organization, while rebuilding and transforming post-war communities, also helps rebuild these individuals trust in each other and in themselves.
Another very unique organization "Fonderie 47 is on a mission to turn weapons of mass destruction into implements of mass distraction. Transforming confiscated AK-47 rifles from the Democratic Republic of Congo into ornate accessories that belie their violent history, refashioning them with gold into rings, earrings, and cuff links, Fonderie 47 has successfully removed more than 12,000 assault rifles from the war-ravaged nation."
If you believe that it is too hard to really look deeper into the internal war you are having within yourself about whether or not this year is the year for change, look at these organizations that are doing just that; they are taking something that was at once a menacing or destructive thought, idea or object and turning it into something beautiful.
Decide if you are ready to make the transformation in yourself in 2012. If you are, you have no idea about all the changes you can make around you in 2013.