Dare to Be Someone Special: Part II

Recently I was invited back to Colgate to give a homecoming speech to 900 students and parents in September. I was honored and terrified at the same time. Just what value I could offer these students – who are on the cusp of entering a “real world gone mad.” I had a sense that this generation is to be the turning point for the human race. Either they step up and lead, or we could perish as our scarcity model of life devours life and tips the scales toward oblivion.

It will be 2045 when this young group of men and women are my age. The world will be very different place than what we know today. I believe it will be a more beautiful world if they learn how to be special. Over the next 30 years there will be many chaotic, confusing and violent challenges to overcome and make wise choices about. Most of the institutions we now rely on in the West will likely be gone and replaced by a new model. More important, the myths of our human co-existence will be challenged and must also transform– to include all of the unsustainable, separation-based stories that guide our everyday actions: the corporate structures, nation-states, fiat currency, centralized economic manipulation, health care, food production, the educational systems and more. Yes, this new generation of graduating smart kids will not only witness it all, but must step up to take a sheepdog role to lead the sheep, protect them from the wolves, and find the pastures in the more beautiful world that lies beyond the veil of normalcy.

So, in the spirit of becoming the mentor (and in gratitude for my own mentor Kaicho Tadashi Nakamura), I offer these ten principles to follow once you choose to be special and co-create a more beautiful world together. If every student in that room, and everyone reading this blog, makes this choice, and then influences just one other person to be their swim buddy on the journey, I believe the ripple we send out into the world will become a tsunami of positive change.

I will explore these principles in detail in the next few blog posts exclusively to SEALFIT Online members and look forward to sharing them with the students at “the Gate.”

Here they are:

1. Uncover Your Purpose and Ignite Your Passion

2. Stoke Your Inner Vision

3. Live with Honor and Take a Stand

4. Find an Enlightened Mentor and Model Him or Her

5. Get Committed and Starve Fear

6. Forge Grit

7. Take Bold Action but Know When to Stand Down

8. Trust Your Gut

9. Soften Your Heart and Love Your Teammates

10. Never Quit

In the next post, I expect you to have made “the choice” so we will dig into these principles with a common interest. Please reply with your comments and expressions of your commitment to “Be Someone Special” below.

Train hard, step up and make the call. Hooyah!

Mark Divine