The bridge to your magnificent future

By Kerryn Vaughan

2nd March 2021

Seven years ago I wrote the book ‘Magnificent Kids!’ which featured 23 superheroes who had the courage and belief that they could change the world, and indeed they did. All of these superheroes started projects before the age of 18, some as young as 7!

They truly believed that if they saw a solution, then there must be a way of bringing that to life. They still carried that childhood idealism that they could play out the same type of heroism as the superheroes they were watching on TV.

As young as they were, they inspired me to believe and then to act.

One thing led to another, and a year later I founded One Planet Classrooms, a Not For Profit that supports schools and communities in Uganda. I believed I could build a bridge to help kids in Australia Skype from their classroom to kids in Africa.

Within a couple of weeks, 40 plus African schools were registered to be a part of this program. But the truth is, I failed. I saw the possibility in this great opportunity and nothing was stopping me. What should have stopped me were three things:

• The difficulty in getting laptops into Uganda

• The fact that the kids in Africa were in bed when the kids in Australia were in school

• The issue of 95% of Uganda not even having access to power (I sent laptops without thinking about this)

But what happened in that realisation and failing, was that I saw the opportunity to create an even better future. I learned that girls were the ones fetching water. Some as young as 3, and many were being sexually assaulted along the path to fetch water. I also learned that kids were dying from drinking filthy water from stagnant ponds.

My solution was to pivot and start enabling clean water solutions like tanks and wells. Many other amazing projects have come to fruition through One Planet Classrooms, but the take away is this:

When we build bridges, magic happens.

Over the many years of blessing this life with our presence, we have become enslaved to the habit of building walls instead of bridges. More quickly believing we can’t, than believing we can.

The walls keep us in the past and prevent us from taking courageous steps over that bridge toward designing the future we would like to see. They keep us safe because there’s a level of comfort within those walls. We may not like what’s happening in there, but we are comfortable nonetheless. We have formed an unholy alliance with the demons that keep us playing small.

Humans are motivated by the avoidance of pain, or the attainment of gain (reward). Unless we’re talking about shoving a burger in our mouths, or some other form of instant gratification, regardless of the pain we know it may cause long term, we are way more often motivated by avoiding pain. 

Often this is because when we think about changing anything in our lives, we feel an instant discomfort, so we choose to avoid it. And when we think about making changes in our lives, there is a massive unknown. We’d all like to have a life that we imagine we could have, but because it’s not tangible, we revert back to the comfort of staying where we are.

So we build walls to prevent us crossing the bridge and moving forward. But walls also keep the sunshine out.

What if we could in fact design our future, and with some persistence we could actually make it happen?

Sound enticing, or at least intriguing?

Our life doesn’t have to be just one of settling, or of being enslaved by fear, or playing small. We have the capacity and self determination at our finger tips to literally design our future.

Many people have done it, many are doing it, and many will do it in the future. Will you join the 1 in 10 who takes action?

Here are 3 things that will help get you there faster:

• Visualise yourself in the future and notice what you are doing, where you are, who’s around you etc

• Write it down in detail and draw it (yes with coloured pencils)

• Take action! Determine the very first step, no matter how small, and do it.

Think, do, or feel something in line with this vision every single day.

A bridge joins two worlds - where I am now and where I want to be. Dare to cross that bridge!

Kerryn Vaughan is the author of ‘Magnificent Kids!’ and ‘Get Off The Bench!’, founder of One Planet Classrooms, co-founder of Girls With Hammers, and host of Get Off The Bench Podcast.

Kerryn is also a DISC ADVANCED® accredited consultant.