Uselessness of being worried

Being worried is a very human emotion. Being no expert (on anything, really), I believe it comes from our frontal lobe's ability to imagine/project the future.

The way I see it, when we don't have enough information to assess a future happening to our own satisfaction, we worry. It's not really the outcome itself that worries us, but the insecurity tied to the outcome of the future event.

The interesting thing is that we know very well that worrying doesn't help us in any way what so ever. It won't give us the information we need, and if anything, it will prevent us from making a decision.

What can we do about this? Here is my personal "recipe".

1. Being concious about our inability to really know anything about the future (including next five minutes), anyway.
2. Accept that a low amount of information for future decision making is ok! We usually probably only have 15-20% of the information we really need, but we usually overestimate it's value by something like 4 times meaning we believe we have between 60-80% of the information we need. A reduction from 15% to 5% isn't really very much, in both cases we don't know squat. But the perceived reduction from 60% to 20% seems very much
3. Take risks and smile at them :-) Life goes on

Structure, people and focus

I am sorry. Let me rephrase that: Focus, People and Structure.

Focus: Exchange. More Exchange and better Exchange. Passion and fun of Exchange.

[yes, by doing this we develop loads of other exciting things, and by creating structured leadership experiences around the exchange we foster that as well. But there is no management without operations.]

People: If you want to be in AIESEC - do AIESEC.

[That means working your ass off every single day to make Exchange happen. Every single action should be related to this. If you think AIESEC is too much work, if you think that doing this is not too much fun or two rewarding, if you think that exams and other stuff is more important - or simply AIESEC is not for you - hey - that's fair enough. But please, leave this organization. Now. There are no excuses for why you, who are in AIESEC, cannot prioritize AIESEC. That is a choice that all those outside AIESEC make. How much work is alot of work? Every morning when you come to school, you should come to the AIESEC office and work. And during the day, between your studies you should work. And after your day, you should work. How much? If you cannot dedicate 2-3 hours per day for AIESEC (that means 15-20 hours a week) then, hey, I guess it's not for you.]

Structure: Design it around the operational actions of Exchange - not the strategic areas of "an organization"

[Talent Management, Communications, Finance are support teams to let the organization do Exchange. If necessary, reduce these teams to only a VP and let the teams that are recruiting. Get rid of ICX teams and turn them into DT Incoming raising teams (Incoming Exchange Non-Corporate: ICX NC). Make CR teams match and service their own TNs]

Now is the time. Not soon, not tomorrow, not "after we have seen abit". And definitely not "next quarter". All organizations and companies dream of next quarter as some sort of holy land of salvation, profitability and calm. Forget about it. Now is the only time that matters.

If not?

Last one out of the office, please turn off the lights.