New year, new possibilities

I'm a slow starter with resolutions. I love the process of reflecting and of imagining new possibilities for myself. But after 15 years of consulting and coaching, many lapsed gym memberships, and years of work fighting off that inner slave driver who wants me to be someone else, I know to approach the new year carefully, peeking at those resolutions from a safe distance, leery of their ulterior motives.

But I've been reading some great resolution stuff at 37 Days, Have Fun, Do Good, and of course, The Happiness Project, and feel slightly inspired. At Daily Good this week, I read this wonderful quote by Buckminster Fuller: "Don't be afraid to take a big step when one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps."

Since this is a blog about making the impossible possible, and by that we mean a total full-on healing of the world within our lifetime, we've certainly got some chasms to cross here at HumanKind Media.

This year, let's bump the 5 percent shift in our media diets to 10 percent. That's right: Shift 10 percent of your daily media consumption to stories about possibilities and good work.

Besides making us feel more hopeful and more energized to do our own unique part in healing the world, making that diet shift tells media producers we want more media that helps, less media that hurts. It's kind of like what happened with trans fats. Once people started saying no to them, food companies, restaurants, even Grandma cut back on the trans fats -- it became de rigeur. At HumanKind, we're helping kickstart the whole thing by giving you a menu to choose from: Check our new list, "10 percent more media for possibilities," on the lower left-hand side of this page.
Let's cut out the trans fats in the media. This could be the year a lot more of us decide that sniping and gossip in the media is poisonous, and start to actively look for stories that inspire us, news that gives us ideas for action, and media that helps us connect more and more as a global community. In the words of Walt Disney, "It's kind of fun to do the impossible."

As for us, we've got some stories coming up that we think will wow you, stories that illustrate how much a few people banding together to support change can really accomplish. (Thanks, Margaret Mead.)

And here's something fun: 2008, in the ancient study of numerology, marks the beginning of a nine-year cycle, a time of starting over, which I always like to think of as a great time to imagine possibilities. There's a lot to look forward to in 2008 from the standpoint of healing the world: Pangea Day, an election year, (I know, not traditionally hope-inspiring, but check out One.org's take), and more and more possibilities for connection for global citizens who haven't ever had a voice before.

Apropros of almost nothing, I was flipping around my favorite sites recently and found an old graduation address you may or may not remember, put to music by Baz Luhrmann. I have always loved this essay, and now I'm even happier that YouTube was invented so I can enjoy it in a whole new form whenever I want. Consider this sound advice before you solidify those resolutions, and, if you're still committed to making and keeping some resolutions, make sure there's a chasm or a high jump in there. Here's to a happy and peaceful new year, filled with new possibilities for everybody.