For the New Year: Questions and Resolutions

What do you want your tomorrow to look like? The newly opened Museo do Amanhá, the Museum of Tomorrow, challenges visitors to ponder that question. Photo credit: By Caio Costa Ribeiro (own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The work of Blueprint Earth is designed to understand our past and present so that we not only envision the potential for a better future, but we equip ourselves to actually make it a reality.

As the New Year approaches, consider how you imagine life in the next 50 years and beyond. What would you do differently?

How about skipping your standard resolutions this year (lose weight, exercise, save money), and instead resolve to cultivate your imagination, nourishing it with powerful ideas for a future world that you really want to live in. What would it look like? How would we treat one another? How would we spend our days?

These are big questions, but chances are you’re already steeped in ideas. State some simple beginning goals, and see what transpires. Even small steps make a difference. Follow through with resolute execution. You just have to get started.

All over the Internet you can find ways to soften your impact on the environment. From tips for green cleaning, to supporting local farms, to reducing consumption, to riding your bike and walking instead of driving, there are everyday ways that you can make every day Earth day.  

What do you want to do today to ensure that you arrive at tomorrow? Inspiration is everywhere. Explore your own backyard for clues. Slow down. Take a breath. Observe. Let your intuition guide you. Get outside. Step away from a screen.

Then, as intrepid spelunker Bill Steele advises, share your discoveries and contribute to knowledge. Be a citizen scientist. Talk with family and friends. Get involved in your community.

Questioning our ideas about what our future looks like is the main theme behind a new museum that opened in Rio de Janeiro—Museu do Amanhã, the Museum of Tomorrow. In an NPR feature, reporter Lourdes Garcia-Navarro explains that the new museum examines “how we have become a force of nature that is transforming our environment and ourselves in indelible ways—both beautiful and destructive.” This is the Anthropocene era, as Stewart Mittnacht described in his recent Blueprint Earth blog post. One part of the museum is devoted to the history of human endeavor.

On which endeavors do you want to focus your attention—on what we build, or what we destroy?

We humans are a collection of our bravest inventions, humble intentions, beautiful artistic creations, sincere goals, failures and recoveries, our resilience and determination. These make up the stirring stories we tell.

Now is the time when optimism and imagination are needed perhaps more than ever before. They can be our most powerful ingredients for moving forward, and for co-creating a world that we all want to live in—peacefully, in harmony with nature and ourselves.

What’s the future story you wish to tell, and how do we get there? What are your questions, and what do you resolve to do to help find the answers?