subject: Leadership, Life, And The Year 2012 [print this page] I am not a Scientist, an Ancient Mayan, or an Astrologer - and I don't know what's going to happen in December of 2012. (If you haven't yet heard the controversy surrounding this date, you soon will. And you'll probably hear about it at an increasingly frequent rate until then).
What I do know is that there seems to be an awful lot of fear-mongering around it; and that a lot of the 'mongerers' out there are earning a pretty penny for their efforts.
On one hand this makes me angry. On the other I see it as a blessing in disguise.
Two main thoughts come to mind when I think about this topic: the first is that it scares the hell out of me (until my rational mind takes over again). The information floating around about 2012 is enough to invoke at least a little stress in the best of us.
But what makes me angry about these people is how their predictions might affect our children. We'll need to have accurate information to share with them to help alleviate their anxieties. Again, there's a lot of fear-based information out there, but if you do a little searching you'll also find a few voices of reason.
Try Googling 'The truth about 2012' and bookmark a good article to reference when your kids ask.
My second thought has to do with leadership - and that if the predictions about 2012 cause enough people to reflect on how fragile and helpless we really are, then perhaps the fear-mongerers have served us well. When the immediacy of our own mortality is 'in our face', and our deepest anxieties are aroused, we desperately want to do something about it!
Aside from the new-age predictions and vague interpretations of what's to come, much of the writing on the topic of 2012 does contain some very real truths about what we've already done to our planet and where it's headed if we continue. So over the next few years, as the subject comes at us with increasing force, let's do our best to separate fact from fiction, and let's make the choice to act on the areas in which we actually do have some control.
Let's hope that people's anxieties translate into increased awareness, and become the catalyst for finding more solutions to the global crisis. Become a champion of one of the positive initiatives already in motion. Be a leader by sharing information, instilling hope in others, and setting the example!
