A Carpet Company's Transformation

The Earth was small, light blue, and so touchingly alone, our home that must be defended like a holy relic. The Earth was absolutely round. I believe I never knew what the word round meant until I saw Earth from space. --Aleksei Leonov 

Good News of the Day:
As Ray Anderson was preparing to give a speech at Interface, the billion dollar carpet company he founded, he had a stark realization."I was running a company that was plundering the earth," he recalls. While Interface fully complied with the law, Ray knew that wasn't enough. So he challenged his employees to find ways to turn it all around, and forestalled objections from his own stockholders. "He bet his entire company," remembers one colleague. And the bet paid off. Today, Interface has cut fossil fuels by 45%, reduced water usage by 49% and slowed its landfill contribution by 80%. Plans are underway for it to be a fully "restorative enterprise" by 2020. Oh, and along the way? Interface has saved over $336 million. [ more ] 

Be The Change:
Check out this Fast Company article that offers 50 Ways to Green a Business. [ more ]

The Story of Ben Carson

You must give some time to your fellow men. Even if it's a little thing, do something for others -- something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. --Albert Schweitzer 

Inspiration of the Day:
Benjamin S. Carson went from an angry street fighter in Detroit to become director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Carson, who attributes his escape from the poverty of his youth to the support and love of his mother, is the recipient of numerous honors and awards. His autobiography, "Gifted Hands", chronicles the road from a broken home and poor self-esteem to his life today. His second book, "Think Big", elaborates on his philosophy of success in life, and his newest book, "The Big Picture", offers an in-depth look at a professional surgeon's life. In this inspiring commencement speech Carson offers advice from his hard-earned experience. [ more ] 

Be The Change:
Share Dr. Carson's story with a friend or family member in the medical profession. 

Sand Castles in South Africa

Every house where love abides
And friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home sweet home
For there the heart can rest. --Henry Van Dyke 

Fact of the Day:
In 2007, Cape Town's Design Indaba conference organizers decided to use that concentrated creative energy to address a problem in their own backyard: the thousands of impoverished people living in makeshift shacks in South Africa's townships. Looking to create low-cost houses that could serve as models for the future, they launched the 10x10 Housing Project, which paired 10 leading international architects with 10 local architects, and tasked each team with developing an appealing house that could be built for about $7,000. Luyanda Mpahlwa, a partner in the firm MMA, and his team decided to build theirs with an unlikely but abundant source: sand. "As architects and professionals, we should be leading the search for different ways of building. Not everyone can afford the normally available material." [ more ] 

Be The Change:
Take a moment to appreciate the place you call "home".

Blessings In A Backpack

If we can conquer space, we can conquer childhood hunger. --Buzz Aldrin 

Good News of the Day:
On Friday afternoon, fifth grader John Gonzalez takes home more than homework. When John and his little sister meet up with their mom outside Normandy Elementary School for the quick walk home, they both carry an extra backpack -- what's inside will help sustain them through the weekend. The food, store coupons and menu are all provided free to the struggling family as part of the Blessings in a Backpack program. For Mom, it's just that -- a blessing. "You want your kids to eat healthy every day; some days you have to scrap up what you can," she said.  [ more ] 

Be The Change:
Learn more about the ways you can get involved with the Blessings in a Backpack program. [ more ]

Sixty-five Roses: A Sister's Memoir

Use every letter you write, every conversation you have, every meeting you attend, to express your fundamental beliefs and dreams. Affirm to others the vision of the world you want. You are a free, immensely powerful source of life and goodness. Affirm it. Spread it. Radiate it. Think day and night about it and you will see a miracle happen: the greatness of our own life. --Robert Muller 

Inspiration of the Day:
Heather Summerhayes Cariou's sister Pam was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at the age of four and given only a short time to live. "Sixtyfive Roses" is the way Pam pronounced the disease that altered the lives of her siblings and parents, who in turn helped alter the community's response to the disease by founding the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Heather's book "Sixty-five Roses" offers a personal account of the pain, hope and valor of a family in crisis as it falls apart and pulls itself together again and again, only to emerge stronger and more loving. [ more ] 

Be The Change:
Read an excerpt from "Sixty-five Roses" here. [ more ]

Benjamin Zander's Shining Eyes

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. --Martha Graham 

Inspiration of the Day:
There are 2 ways to approach this talk: 1. A man talks about classical music 2. A man discusses how to experience life and throws in some Chopin for good measure. Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it -- and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections.  [ more ] 

Be The Change:
Keep in mind the skill of present moment focus Mr. Zander mentions and practice it throughout the day

Finding Friends on Horseback

I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. --Etienne de Grellet 

Good News of the Day:
On a chilly morning nearly two weeks ago, Donna Byrne packed everything she owned onto one horse, climbed atop another, and set out for Ocala, a ranching town 160 miles north. She said she lost her job in Arcadia a few months ago, could not afford the rent, and hoped to pick up some work in Ocala before riding on to Amarillo, Texas. "I take it one "I take one day at a time," said Ms. Byrne,"I don't worry about anything." But what began as a lonely, quixotic trek has turned into a team effort, with horse lovers nationwide offering to help with rides, money, room and board, veterinarians and temporary work. By Wednesday, when she reached this small farm town, Ms. Byrne had become a minor celebrity and a magnet for generosity.  [ more ]

Submitted by: Arathi Ravichandran, Jenny Douglas

Be The Change:
Welcome a newcomer to your town, school or workplace with a small gesture of generosity. 

Creating Knowledge More Consciously

Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes. --Peter F. Drucker 

Inspiration of the Day:
The coauthor of 'Managing Flow: A Process Theory of the Knowledge-Based Firm', Tokyo-based business scholar Ikujiro Nonaka strives to help organizations create knowledge more consciously, drawing on Western and Eastern philosophic traditions. Nonaka summarizes and extends a body of work that could change the prevailing view of knowledge management to that of an enabler of in-depth learning. "Companies and leaders who treat knowledge management as just another branch of IT don't understand how human beings learn and create," he says. Unlike land, capital, energy, labor, and technology, knowledge is innately self-renewing. "It is produced and consumed simultaneously. Its value increases with use, rather than being depleted as with industrial goods or commodities. Above all, it is a resource created by humans acting in relationship with one another." [ more ] 

Be The Change:
In the context of a collaboration you engage in this week, make an effort to create knowledge more consciously.

Ways to help your society

I have inherited a belief in community, the promise that a gathering of the spirit can both create and change culture. In the desert, change is nurtured even in stone by wind, by water, through time. --Terry Tempest Williams 

Good News of the Day:
It all started when Mark Rembert and Taylor Stuckert decided to put aside work in the Peace Corps to see what they could do to help serve their own community. The two friends believed the Peace Corps philosophy, of helping communities help themselves. Last fall, Rembert wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper with an idea. "Let's designate Clinton County as the first green-enterprise zone. We had no idea what that meant," he says with a laugh. But it did get people talking, which is what they wanted. Soon they had a Web site and an organization called Energize Clinton County, whose plan was to get funding to weatherize thousands of county homes. They say it will create more than a thousand jobs and save homeowners $3 million a year in energy costs. NPR shares more. [ more ]

Submitted by: Roshni Kasad

Be The Change:
This week, explore a way to serve in your own community.

Wake Up Call For the World

I've continued to recognize the power individuals have to change virtually anything and everything in their lives in an instant. I've learned that the resources we need to turn our dreams into reality are within us, merely waiting for the day when we decide to wake up and claim our birthright. --Anthony Robbins 

Good News of the Day:
Peter Russell, a Cambridge-trained physicist and futurist who has written about consciousness for four decades, should have been at a high point in his life. Fifteen years ago, Russell's book, The White Hole in Time, had just been published; he was a popular teacher and corporate consultant, his work lauded by leading thinkers. But, Russell says, "I was feeling an inner disquiet. What I was saying in the talks was, 'If we could just break out of this old mode of consciousness and, in the spiritual sense, wake up to what we truly are and reconnect with that essential nature, then we could make it through.' Yet there was another voice in me saying, 'It's too late.'" In this article from Ode, physicist-turned-futurist Peter Russell continues on to argue that only communal creativity can get us through current environmental and economic crises.  [ more ] 

Be The Change:
This short passage speaks about the importance of a consciousness that "Moves in Wholeness". [ more ]

Australian Slumdog Millionaires

All we see of someone at any moment is a snapshot of their life, there in riches or poverty, in joy or despair. Snapshots don't show the million decisions that led to that moment. --Richard Bach 

Inspiration of the Day:
Mark and Cathy Delaney don't need to see the hit movie Slumdog Millionaire. The Australian couple experience slum life in India every day. For the last 13 years they have lived in the shanty towns of the Indian capital, New Delhi, raising their children and sharing their lives with the locals. Their two sons, Tom, 12, and Oscar, 7, were born in India and have lived most of their lives in slums. They have no running water, no TV, no fridge and no washing machine. Two mattresses, used to sleep on at night, double as a "lounge" during the day. Meals are eaten sitting on the floor and they share with neighbours a squat toilet in a small bathroom. But the Delaneys are not complaining. For them, living in a slum has been deeply enriching. [ more ]

Submitted by: Bharani G.

Be The Change:
Get rid of some unnecessary material need in your life, and do without it for the next month!

NY Cabbies Help Orphaned Twins

The world is moved not only by the mighty shoves of the heroes but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. --Helen Keller 

Inspiration of the Day:
Almost 100,000 New York City cabbies are coming together to contribute to help raise and educate 13-year-old twin boys whose parents were killed in a hit-and-run accident. The taxi federation asked both yellow and livery cab drivers to donate one day's tips, a sum the group estimates averages about $15 to $20. The twins are being raised by their uncle, Akram Audah and aunt, Fatma Elnahal. Audah is also a livery cab driver who lives and works on Staten Island. [ more ] 

Be The Change:
Consider ways in which you and your circle of friends, or your family can come together to contribute to a good cause. 

The Great Mystery of Consciousness

Man's ethics must not end with man, but should extend to the universe. He must regain the consciousness of the great Chain of Life from which he cannot be separated. --Albert Schweitzer 

Inspiration of the Day:
"To make scientific headway in a topic as tangled as consciousness, it helps to clear away some red herrings. Consciousness surely does not depend on language. Babies, many animals and patients robbed of speech by brain damage are not insensate robots; they have reactions like ours that indicate that someone's home. Nor can consciousness be equated with self-awareness. At times we have all lost ourselves in music, exercise or sensual pleasure, but that is different from being knocked out cold. What remains is not one problem about consciousness but two, which the philosopher David Chalmers has dubbed the Easy Problem and the Hard Problem." In this Time Magazine article, Harvard Psychologist Steven Pinker presents an intriguing explanation of the neural basis for consciousness. [ more ] 

Be The Change:
Explore your consciousness in some way today. For further reading, Harvard professors Daniel Gilbert and Randy Buckner share what happens in your brain when you aren't doing anything at all. [ more 

The essence of nonviolence is love. Out of love and the willingness to act selflessly, strategies, tactics, and techniques for a nonviolent struggle

The essence of nonviolence is love. Out of love and the willingness to act selflessly, strategies, tactics, and techniques for a nonviolent struggle arise naturally. Nonviolence is not a dogma; it is a process. --Thich Nhat Hanh

In 1959, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. came to India to further understand Mahatma Gandhi's tactics of passive resistance. Gandhi's methods of nonviolent protests had worked a decade earlier to bring independence to a nation. In '59, King was in the midst of formulating and carrying out his own plan to help bring freedom and equality to the oppressed in the United States. Their legacies were forever linked by the lessons King applied when he returned to America. On the 50th anniversary of King's visit to India, his oldest son, Martin Luther King III went to India to commemorate the historical trip. [ more ]

Read this inspiring extract from King's Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1964. [ more ]

Our deepest wishes are whispers of our authentic selves. We must learn to respect them. We must learn to listen.

Our deepest wishes are whispers of our authentic selves.
We must learn to respect them.
We must learn to listen. --Sarah Ban Breathnach

Hurrying to get out the door on a Monday morning, Kathy Smith started to scratch her name on her son's homework assignment when she stopped to read what he had written. The fourth-grade creative assignment was pretty straightforward: If I Had Three Wishes. Kathy smiled as she read the first item on her son's bucket list: a golden retriever. His second wish was to play professional basketball, hardly a surprise for a young jock like Tanner, who spent his time shuffling between the football fields, baseball diamonds and basketball courts in his Alpharetta, Ga., community. It was the third item that made Kathy stop. "To make kids with cancer laugh," Tanner wrote in his 9-year-old scrawl. What follows is a remarkable story of generosity and wishes coming true. [ more ]

In the spirit of 9-year-old Tanner, if you had three wishes, what would they be? [ more ]

We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment, but it is transient.

We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment, but it is transient. It is a little parenthesis in eternity. If we share with caring, lightheartedness and love, we will create abundance and joy for each other. And then this moment will have been worthwhile. --Deepak Chopra

19-year-old Anjana Damraji is a first year science student. She lives in a girl's hostel in Pune, manages to pay her fees through a government scholarship and tutors five children during her spare hours to earn an extra bit of money. None of this would seem extraordinary had it not been for the fact that Anjana's parents work on a construction site as laborers and have been doing so for the past 24 years. Anjana credits her against-the-odds success to a unique child care service that has transformed hundreds of lives like her own. [ more ]

Try expanding your own definition of "family" today.

I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend

I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend. --Abraham Lincoln

In the most dangerous neighborhood of Guayaquil -- Ecuador's largest and most crime-ridden city -- a dozen youths are busy working in the Paz Urbana Print Shop. By the entrance, a young man designs a T-shirt logo with graffiti paint. In the back, amid the hip-hop music and paint fumes, tattooed young men with baggy pants and baseball caps compile an order of worksheets for schools. The print shop is part of an organization of small businesses, including a bakery, a beauty parlor, and a dance school, with a surprising business model -- they are entirely run by Ecuadorean street gang members, many of whom were once rivals. At the heart of this operation that has helped produce a dramatic drop in neighborhood crime, is a former nun and school teacher, Nelsa Curbelo, from Uruguay. Upon first glance, the gentle, grandmotherly Nelsa looks out of place. But later, watching her comfortable interactions with the tough-looking youths, the affection and respect she commands is evident. [ more ]

In this short but profound passage, Thich Nhat Hanh reflects on who the "enemy" really is. [ more ]

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. --Jane Howard

Inspiration of the Day:
Chris and Georgia Frankel's house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, now has 12 people calling it home. In addition to their three daughters, ages 3, 6 and 17, this large-hearted couple shares their space with five adults and two teens. The family started taking in people a long while ago. They are all there for various reasons, from difficult family situations to trouble with former roommates. Some are there daily, and others come and go based on school schedules and work commitments. Rent -- if the person can afford it -- is minimal and sometimes even shunned. Not that the Frankel's are wealthy, they are just trying to pay forward the kindness they've received. [ more ]

Send a note of thanks today to someone in your own life who treats you as part of their "extended" family.

When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. --Audrey Lorde

A recent one-of-a-kind, multiple city transplant operation offered new hope to people in need of organs. This Valentine's Day, twelve people in three cities exchanged six different organs in what's known as a domino kidney transplant. It all started with one willing donor... [ more ]

Pay-forward a gift you have received in your own life today.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. --Philo

It has become a beloved ritual at Dana-Farber's Cancer Institute, where they are building a new facility. Every day, children who come to the clinic write their names on sheets of paper and tape them to the windows of the walkway for ironworkers to see. And, every day, the ironworkers paint the names onto I-beams and hoist them into place as they add floors to the new 14-story Yawkey Center for Cancer Care. "It's fabulous," said 18-month-old Kristen Hoenshell's mother, Elizabeth, as she held her daughter and marveled at the rainbow of names. "It's just a simple little act that means so much." [ more ]

Do something in your workplace that'll make everyone smile big!

We must be silent before we can listen. We must listen before we can learn. We must learn before we can prepare. We must prepare before we can serve.

We must be silent before we can listen. We must listen before we can learn. We must learn before we can prepare. We must prepare before we can serve. We must serve before we can lead. --William Arthur Ward

There's a lot of resentment these days against executive compensation and all the perks taken by corporate heads. Maybe there's something to be learned from the boss of Japan Airlines, Haruka Nishimatsu, who takes the bus to work. Nishimatsu knocked down his office walls so people can walk up and talk to him, and he works from a desk with an old-fashioned wooden in-and-out box. Got an idea? Tell him at lunch in the company cafeteria because he wants people to share."I go there," Nishimatsu said, "to raise morale and motivation." And he motivates one-on-one, regularly popping into planes, chatting with flight attendants, even helping sort the newspapers. [ more ]

Take time to appreciate the people who serve you in everyday and often unacknowledged ways.

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science. --Albert Einstein

When thirteen-year-old Andrew Davey read a blog by a leading expert in green computing, explaining how changing from a white background computer screen to a black one could save energy, he decided to put the theory to the test. He is now the proud owner of an environmentally-friendly search engine called Ecosmartsearch.com -- a search engine with the motto "We are saving energy, now it's your turn". Andrew's search engine uses a black background which saves energy because the computer monitor uses 59 watts to produce the image on the screen, whereas a white or light screen uses 74 watts to display the image. This means that every time ecosmartsearch.com is used, it saves 15 watts. As it is Google-powered, the search results are exactly the same but use less energy. [ more ]

When you do your next internet search, use Andrew's eco-friendly search engine. [ more ]

You can stand tall without standing on someone.

You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims. --Harriet Woods

"The coach never considered any other option. No matter that his high school basketball team had ridden a bus two and a half hours to get to Milwaukee, then waited another hour past game time to play. Didn't matter that the game was close, or that this was a chance to beat a big city team. Something else was on Dave Rohlman's mind when he asked for a volunteer to shoot two free throws awarded his team on a technical foul in the second quarter. His senior captain raised his hand, ready to go to the line as he had many times before. Only this time it was different."You realize you're going to miss them, don't you?" Rohlman said." So begins this heartwarming real-life story of a team that demonstrated how some things in life are more important than winning. [ more ]

While in traffic or in the checkout line, see what it feels like when you choose to let someone get "ahead" of you.

I really do believe I was put on the planet to help people have creative confidence.

I really do believe I was put on the planet to help people have creative confidence. I don't have 27 agendas. I'm not the sustainability guy, or the developing-world guy. My contribution is to teach as many people as I can to use both sides of their brain, so that for every problem, every decision in their lives, they consider creative as well as analytical solutions. --David Kelley, founder of IDEO

Until about a year ago, David Kelley was on a roll. He had received a National Design Award, been inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, held an endowed chair at the Stanford School of Engineering, and even won the Sir Misha Black Medal for his "distinguished contribution to design education." He also had a loving wife, a daughter to whom he was devoted, and a vast circle of friends that included Apple's Steve Jobs and actor Robin Williams. Then, one morning, he noticed a lump on his neck. David Kelley, the founder of IDEO, had cancer. Read the inspiring account of David's journey into design thinking. [ more ]

If you had limited time to live, what would you spend your life doing?

It is no longer enough to be smart

It is no longer enough to be smart -- all the technological tools in the world add meaning and value only if they enhance our core values, the deepest part of our heart. Acquiring knowledge is no guarantee of practical, useful application. Wisdom implies a mature integration of appropriate knowledge, a seasoned ability to filter the inessential from the essential. --Doc Childre and Bruce Crye

In this inspiring TED Talk, Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for "practical wisdom" as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world. [ more ]

More from an interview with Barry Schwarz, right after he gave this talk. [ more ]

If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought ...

If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day. --Alex Nobel

In times of economic woe, Estonians are banking on ideas to lift their spirits above the gloom and doom of recession with an online "happiness bank" and forums on better governance. In the virtual "happiness bank", people will be able to earn virtual money on their accounts by doing good deeds for those in need. Organisers hope it will give people the idea that doing good is as valuable as earning money. [ more ]

The waste of plenty is the resource of scarcity. --Thomas Love Peacock

"Out here where we live you are responsible for getting rid of your own garbage. ... If you've never been to your city dump I can recommend visiting one for an educational experience. We live near a medium-sized city, and its official dumpsite stretches from horizon to horizon. A complete network of ramps, lanes, traffic signs and roads criss-crosses the entire area. ... You get out of your truck and your gag reflex kicks in, triggered by the potent stench of decay and a soup of mixed chemicals oozing into the soil. It won't take you long to realize that this is not an environmentally sustainable situation. ... We went home and decided to seriously cut back on our household waste. Turns out, it's easy." This article shares ten easy ways to reduce household waste. [ more ]