Global Reset: Suspense Novel

GLOBAL HUNGER REVELATIONS

For the past few months my blog has been, dare I say pompously and arrogantly, preoccupied with exploring the world of health, lifestyle and fun. On Friday the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (“FAO”) threw a large and much needed bucket of ice-cold water straight into my face with the release of an incredibly surprising and disturbing report on world hunger. For the first time ever the world’s hungry exceeded one billion people or 15% of our planet’s population. A very sobering and chilling piece of news! Before moving on I’d like to go back 15 months and revisit a blog I wrote:

How we approach and resolve the issues below, and how effectively the world collaborates, will ultimately define and shape the next one hundred years. These issues are increasingly moving to the forefront of the agenda of many nation states and I expect they’ll only grow in importance as we continue our journey into the 21st century.

• Explosive Population Growth
• Accelerating Technology Advancements
• Unprecedented Shift in World Economic Equilibrium
• Depletion of Fossil Fuels
• Global Warming
• Deadly Virus Strains and Diseases
• Terrorism and Social Unrest

Believe me, these issues will increasingly occupy the front news and people will gradually come to realize their significance and direct implication for their own lives as we move further into the 21st century.

Yeah, right. Another doomsday prophet. Doesn’t concern us. We’ve heard it all before. We’re more worried about the economy and how it is now creating such hardship for us. This year we can’t even buy a new car and will have to do with the three cars we already have, one almost five years old. And we can’t afford to upgrade our TV to the latest 50-inch high definition offering. We are daily flooded with grotesque amounts of food, spend tens of billion dollars on a variety of ineffective weight programs in a losing battle to fight escalating obesity, and throw away enough food every year to feed tens or hundreds of million people. While one billion people go hungry every day. What’s wrong with this picture?

Let’s take a closer look at some of the findings in the FAO report. 93% of the world’s hungry live in Asia and Africa and an incredible one third of the African population, mostly in the Sub-Saharan countries, go hungry or starve. One out of every three people! The number of starving humans increased by a whopping 100 million from last year, in great part due to the world economic downturn and higher food prices. Soaring cost of basic foods like rice and maize is fueling worldwide unrest and riots. A goal of The World Food Summit is to reduce world hunger to 420 million people by 2015. We are not even close! There is no way for us to reach this goal as we are sadly heading in the opposite direction with no real counter-initiatives on the horizon.

Unfortunately it only gets worse. The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura reported at the Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul earlier this year that we are irrevocably heading toward a world water crisis unless we take immediate action. The course we are on will result in acute water shortages for half of planet Earth’s population in about 20 years. Think about this for a second and consider the unimaginable global consequences! Accelerating population growth, pollution, higher standards of living, increased meat consumption and a sharp up-tick in biofuel production are all contributing to the mounting water shortage. Poor health, diseases, environmental disasters, political and social unrest and even war (water issues sparked riots against the Khartoum government six years ago, which evolved into the current Darfur conflict with an estimated 400,000 fatalities), are direct consequences of water shortages. Lack of political support, a leadership vacuum and chronic underinvestment contribute to making the global water outlook virtually hopeless.

This doesn’t concern us either does it? It has always been like this and there is nothing we can do about it. And these reports are of course self-serving, alarmist propaganda and have absolutely nothing to do with reality. Right? No! The situation is escalating and a serious long-term threat to peace and prosperity for our kids and future generations. Spend a few months in Sub-Saharan Africa, report back to us about your experiences and you’ll find that your perspective on life has forever changed. We can all do something and we need to if we are to prevent this imminent (20-30 years is not that far away!) global catastrophe, which could ultimately trigger a complete Global Reset with unfathomable consequences.

I urge the plethora of environmentalist groups that search for meaningful causes to immediately abandon their uproar of Obama swatting a fly; forget about saving the minnows in California, resulting in tens of thousands of people out of work; and ditch all your other meaningless causes. Please focus your resources and energy on something that is of real importance to the world we live in! We’ll all be better off.

Only by being aware of, gaining a better understanding of and focusing on this massively critical global issue; by agreeing on and charting a long-term direction and solution; by mobilizing the necessary resources coupled with substantial commitments and investments, can we perhaps reverse the deadly course we are on. This is a highly complex issue that requires global cooperation and an unambiguous long-term course of action. I believe it’ll get a lot worse before appropriate action is taken and the problem is seriously addressed. But when that happens I’m confident that we’ll come up with a sustainable solution.

As a final note I want to recognize a friend, Carol Anne Levy, who is actively doing something about what we have discussed above and made it an integral part of her Global Journey in life. This is how she helps our world:

“The Pilot Light Foundation (www.pilotlightfund.org), was formed to support small projects in Africa that have the potential to significantly improve the quality of life for a relatively low budget, impacting people in non urban areas. The types of projects we will fund are those that may fall outside the parameters of programming for larger NGOs, but are life changing for the communities in which they are realized. The idea of the pilot light is that we will set a small spark that can grow into a larger fire, after we are gone.”

Way to go Carol! You give us hope and are an inspiration for us all!

                                                                                                   

                                                                                                    -Nick
                                                                                                    www.nickraybourne.com

GLOBAL ENERGY......SPIRIT - CHI - SHAKTI

This blog is about a topic that is becoming increasingly important to me. In the past few years, I don’t know exactly when, my focus in life gradually started changing. Maybe it was reaching 50 or perhaps it simply came with growing older. You can easily find evidence of this transformation in my prior blogs dealing with health, lifestyle and happiness: Global Health, Global Journey, Global Fun.

There are certain activities that provide me with inner peace and allow me to completely empty my mind of the routine daily distractions in life. The most common ways I reach this state are: when I go for a long slow run; when I don my noise-canceling headphones and turn on my favorite music during an intercontinental flight; when I drive extended distances alone in my car; or when I take a long, quiet, hot bath. When this tranquility sets in, my mind becomes hyperactive and fills itself with an abundance of positive thoughts and ideas. “Who is Nick Raybourne? How can I improve my life? What do I need to change to become more fulfilled and a better person? What can I learn from people I know?  And so forth.” It is a very rewarding, unstructured process of creative out-of-the box thinking, soul searching and self-exploration that infallibly results in novel ideas and good things.

My ambition is to find ways to always be full of inner energy, enthusiasm and motivation, thereby achieving more of the joy and happiness we all strive for. Conventional wisdom and all the naysayers (I was one not many years ago), in fact most people, would probably say that this is impossible. But it isn’t. I constantly work on having an open mind and gather the courage to challenge conventional wisdom and status quo. Coupled with my infinite hunger to learn and change, I hope I’ll make significant progress toward this inspiring goal. I believe I already have.

It is easy to make a conscious decision to close the gate to one’s inner energy and become depressed, unenthusiastic, lethargic, even sick, etc. when something bad happens or things are not going so well. But when you are on a hot date in your favorite restaurant, or when you are on your first day of a spectacular Caribbean vacation, or when you sink a 40 foot eagle put with your friends watching on the 18th hole, you suddenly are full of energy and joy and feel at that very moment as if you can single-handedly conquer the world. You instantly have so much positive energy that nothing seems impossible. On the other hand you feel horrible and have absolutely no energy, enthusiasm or joy when you return to work on a rainy Monday morning, when your girl friend dumps you, or when you shoot 125 to finish last in your club’s golf championship.

Recently I realized that a few special people among us never allow this complete change in energy and enthusiasm to happen. I’m working hard on learning how to reach this improved state of mind. When researching this phenomenon I discovered that I could turn negative situations into positive ones by never closing the gate to the inner energy we all possess. Whenever I’m in a situation where I feel the gate might close, I now force myself to make it stay open by virtue of determination, enthusiasm, a greatly improved mindset, and by relentlessly challenging myself to leave it open. With time and by actively working on this, my goal is to never let the gate close, with the expectation that my energy level and spirit will always remain high, and my life in turn be greatly enhanced.

This, I’m convinced, represents the intangible quality, aura and edge that extraordinarily happy and successful people possess. It is not because they are smarter, luckier or harder working, but because they have found a way to always stay positive, which makes their energy, enthusiasm and joy phenomenally positive forces in their lives, relationships and businesses.

The other thing I now make a priority is practicing how to be nice. This may sound a little hokey but makes a lot of sense after I read a book about it. Being nice is not a genetic trait and thus one can learn how to become nicer. But being nice takes practice and focus like everything else in life. Why not be nice all the time to everyone and not just once in a while and selectively? Well, I’m absolutely certain that the nicer we are  – to waiters, your wife, your boss, the old lady next door, the stranger in the supermarket – the happier we’ll be and the better we’ll feel. This in turn will make us more confident, better liked and respected, open up new exciting opportunities and in general make us more fulfilled.

I do all of this for selfish reasons but it’s a win-win so why not? Truly successful people have, among many things, perfected the art of being nice and probably wonder why others are not doing it too. It is a lot easier and a much more powerful tool than spending an extra hour at work or trying to find other ways to do well in life or in business. Being nice and staying positive and enthusiastic are some of the many intangible life skills they unfortunately never taught us in school. Maybe schools – from first grade through graduate school - should seriously rethink their obsolete and outdated curricula. I have many thoughts on this topic but that’s a discussion for anther day.

                                                                                                    -Nick
                                                                                                    www.nickraybourne.com

GLOBAL FUN

My wife keeps telling me that my blog is way too serious. She is surely right [she usually is and is a lot more fun than I am] so today I’ll explore the world of fun. We all like to have fun but why don’t we have more fun, why is it important to have fun and how do we actually have fun?

I don’t think anyone will dispute the importance of having fun in life. Fun is a way to relieve stress, stay connected with others, maintain balance in life and prevent burnout. But isn’t it true that it's easy to have fun in childhood, but as we grow older fun becomes more elusive and we often need to make it a priority? Do you have enough fun in your life?

So to get some different perspectives I decided to turn to some of my friends to hear what they had to say. I asked them two simple questions:

1. Why it is important to have fun?
2. How do you have fun in life?

The answers I received were diverse, fascinating and provided a multidimensional perspective into the world of fun. Thanks again for all your input guys! This is what they had to say:

1. Having fun is essential to preserving your physical, mental, and spiritual health.
2. Fun is spending small slices of life with friends and/or family, people close to you, with whom you feel most comfortable. It can also be exploring new things, changing your routine (e.g., new places, new recipes, new games). In short, it is building enjoyable memories that you can always go back to, especially when times are hard.

1. Having fun makes you feel happy. Fun gets your brain cleaned out of what my mom calls brain cobwebs. What does that mean? All that thinking that ends-up creating more stress, frustration, anxiousness....etc. The kind of thinking that makes you nag and pester others around you. My mom also thought we should all have a quota of fun every week. She didn't want us to over-do the fun, though, because we might stop appreciating it.
2. Fun can be anything: From enjoying the company of your siblings or nephews, watching a good movie, sharing a good margarita with a good friend, or tubing down the river. It's such a personal thing. Probably the most common truth to all of this is: There are happy people and serious people. The serious people might have fun sometimes and feel happy, but always go back to being serious again. The happy people, myself included, are usually feeling happy and having fun with life in general and on a daily basis. Sometimes, they might have a bad day, but are generally up-beat and thinking positive thoughts.

1. Interesting question to be sure, and I am constantly of the opinion that I personally work far too hard and don't leave enough time for what most people would define as pure fun.  That said, I am convinced that having fun is critical to long-term happiness and success in all aspects of one's life. I have always tried to have fun in everything I do, including work.  Fun creates enjoyment and the balance necessary to manage the challenges placed on our daily lives.
2. I look to have fun on a regular basis, and I can find it through spending time with family and friends, playing and watching sports, general entertainment, and having success and enjoying what I do at work.

1. This one is hard and certainly varies from one to the next. But, it certainly is true that most people can do a better job of having fun. It is also true that all kinds of huge positive direct and indirect effects accrue to those having fun, including all kinds of performances (sports, professionally, personally, health and longevity, popularity, etc. etc.).
2. My wife just bought me a book called "Now", which as I understand it talks about the importance of living in the present and totally leave ALL historical garbage behind since it is sunk cost and nothing one can do anything about anyway. That is a lot easier to say and conceptually understand that actually implement. Nonetheless, to have genuine fun you have to somehow allow yourself to and by implication be in control of your own mind and happiness. As for what exactly to do it will vary but likely success will come if the individual picks activities that creates the right associations relative to allowing living 100 percent in the now.

1. There are two essential characteristics which differentiate us from animals: 1) the ability to take an abstract view, a perspective apart from our own physical interaction with the world, and humor. Although many animals often exhibit playful behavior, that lacks the detachment and emotional relief which is associated with human behavior. So, short answer to your first question: it is what makes us human.
2. I do very little in life without serious intent. I would put miniature golf or bowling in the category which fits the definition of fun. I never do those things. My casual enjoyment without serious intent is mostly social, such as our wine dinners. At least there, the food and grog are usually pretty good, and there's occasionally some interest in the conversation. Usually I social with a smaller group of closer and longer duration friends. Take the weekend. My dog and I made our five mile run on Saturday afternoon at the lake. On Sunday morning, we took a canoe tour of West Bay, seeing eagles, osprey, ducks, a beaver and a few fishermen. Both very enjoyable, but in different ways, and neither would I describe as "fun". Fun is more primary for people who go for casual interaction based amusement without mental or physical exertion. You have fun with your kids when they are growing up. It's an important part of family activity and balanced development for the child.  Some of my favorite activities: skiing at Telluride and in Canada, running to the top of a mountain, rowing hard for more than an hour, a hundred mile bicycle ride, maxing out my heart rate, and flying my airplane. Lighter stuff: dinner with my wife, reading, water skiing, learning more about aviation and piloting.

1. In today's stressful environment (economy, daily commute, stresses at work) it's essential to find time for fun. It's too easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day stresses of life. Having fun brings you back to what's really important, plus it makes you feel young again.
2. A good example would be yesterday, I was sitting by the pool reading a magazine dangling my feet in the cold water. Before I knew it I was surrounded by 5 children wanting to play volleyball. It was 2 hours of playing in the water, showing a little girl how to hit the ball over the net, laughing and just being a kid again. I laughed and played and forgot all about the article I was reading, and how cool the water had initially felt.

1. Fun is the reason we toil.  Fun is the reward.  Fun is the part of everything that makes life worthwhile.  A life without fun is called purgatory.
2. Fun finds me...  it always has.  I am very easily amused.  Daily life with family offers a great deal of fun for me.

1. Fun is part of what gives meaning to all the tedious stuff we do day to day.
2. Lots of obvious fun things, but more specifically I would say being in or on water.  Sailing, rowing, surfing, swimming, water skiing, and just about anything else along those lines, though I’m not as tolerant of cold water as I was in younger days.  And then gathering with friends for a nice dinner and a few glasses of wine at the end of an active day.

1. I have come to the conclusion that having fun is very important in order to deal with the more serious aspects in life. Having fun is renewal of energy and relaxation and also a reminder of your other sides of your personality,which is quite important to be able to bring forward in other aspects as well. Like how one can respond to even serious things by being able to bring out energy, joy and excitement is priceless.
2. My idea of fun is something that triggers emotions like happiness, excitement, inner peace and hope. (And probably many others as well). Could be anything from reading a good book to skiing.

While waiting for my friends to submit their input I did some Internet research on the topic of fun and found these enlightening quotes [I really like Katherine Hepburn’s quote]:

• It's kind of fun to do the impossible.  --WALT DISNEY
• When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things.  --JOE NAMATH
• I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.   --THOMAS A. EDISON
• To love what you do and feel that it matters - how could anything be more fun?   --KATHARINE GRAHAM
• The man who does not work for the love of work but only for money is not likely to make money nor find much fun in life.  --CHARLES M. SCHWAB
• If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.  --HERODOTUS (484BC-430BC)
• It [sex] was the most fun I ever had without laughing.  --WOODY ALLEN
• Still it was really tremendous fun sitting there working and earning money. It was almost like being a man.   --HENRIK IBSEN - A DOLL'S HOUSE
• Some debts are fun when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set about retiring them.   --OGDEN NASH
• Every Englishman must have a hobby. Some like to collect the stamp, some like to make the jam, but the most fun is to a kill a little animal with a shotgun or rip them up with wild dog.  --BORAT
• Most of the time I don't have much fun. The rest of the time I don't have any fun at all.  --WOODY ALLEN
• The prospect of a long day at the beach makes me panic. There is no harder work I can think of than taking myself off to somewhere pleasant, where I am forced to stay for hours and 'have fun'.   --PHILLIP LOPATE
• It is fun to be in the same decade with you.  --FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT [letter to Winston Churchill]
• There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it.       --MARY W. LITTLE
• Flying may not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.  --AMELIA EARHART
• Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.   --ERICA JONG, FEAR OF FLYING
• Getting there isn't half the fun - it's all the fun.  --ROBERT TOWNSEND
• I think we're having fun. I think our customers really like our products.  --STEVE JOBS
• Eating everything you want is not that much fun. When you live a life with no boundaries, there’s less joy. If you can eat anything you want to, what’s the fun in eating anything you want to?  --TOM HANKS
• I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, sinners are much more fun.  --BILLY JOEL
• I can't imagine anything worse than being required to have fun.   --SCOTT WESTERFELD
• If you obey all of the rules, you miss all of the fun.   --KATHERINE HEPBURN

Fun is an integral part of our lives and a key component of our happiness and wellbeing. It is tightly coupled to our personality and character and I believe achievement of fun greatly depends on our personal courage, inclination to embrace risk, living in the moment and pursuing true desires in life. One might classify fun in two buckets: first, there is the perishable and evaporating fun, and secondly the sustainable fun that comes from living life to the fullest. Both are critical to happiness but one without the other leaves a void in our lives. Examples of the first type of fun is watching a movie or having dinner with your friends. The other type of fun can be illustrated by something a friend of mine recently did. He bought a big sailboat [I had no idea he was even interested in sailing]; he has since been learning how to sail and has as a result created a new way to greatly enhance his life by enabling a complex symphony of sustainable, fun experiences.

During my long runs this weekend I thought a lot about what fun is to me and concluded that I experience the most fun when I learn, discover, create and change status quo; when I contribute, help others and make the lives of family, friends and others better; when I take risks, plan and go on adventures, push myself mentally and physically and venture outside my normal comfort zone; and of course when getting pleasure from an assortment of everyday happenings primarily related to family, friends and work.

In conclusion I hope this little write-up has stimulated your thinking – it definitely has for me – and will ultimately result in more fun for all of you!
                                                                                            -Nick
                                                                                            www.nickraybourne.com