Brace yourself for chALLEnGeS!



Announcing: the Do-Good Dream chALLEnGe @ christinaswwworld


Respond to the Do-Good Dream chALLEnGe before 1 December, and you could win $150 in extra holiday season cash!

Submissions including thoughtful and complete responses that follow the challenge guidelines below will be voted on in a christinaswwworld reader poll that will be open at ned.com during the first 2 weeks of December 2008. When the poll ends on 15 December, the individual who posted the winning response will receive $150, to be awarded by christina (that's me, and here's why link coming soon).


Here's your chALLEnGe scenario

Imagine for this challenge that after many years at your current career, you've come to a point where you are ready for a dramatic change. Your family of 4 is onboard with heading out into the great global unknown, to spend the next 5-15 years exploring the world and doing what you can to give back to the planet.
  • You have an angel who thinks this is a great idea, and has agreed to pay you a $1,500 monthly stipend and your childrens' tuition at international schools for the next 15 years as long as you are putting your talents, time and energy toward making the world a better place. You can volunteer, get yourself extra training, get a job or even start a business and still get the $1500/mo, as long as your activity is contributing toward making something better that you think is wrong with the world.
  • After re-arranging your finances, you also have $150,000 in cash and no debt, to help you relocate and plan for your family's long term financial security.

  • You have all of your own passions, experience and networks to draw from in reinventing the next 15 years of your career, and moving forward from now as someone who is paid to do what you can to make the world better.
Here's your challenge: Design a new life for yourself in service to humanity. Dream yourself into the scenario above, and then push yourself to think through the practicalities of making it happen. Like the photo at the top of this post says, "No one can do everything, but everyone can do something!" Earn the $150 prize by telling us what YOU would do, following the guidelines below.


chALLenGe guidelines:

1. Your response to this challenge may be posted anywhere online that is publicly readable, including your own blog, if you have one. If you don't have your own blog, you may post your response at an online community like ned.com, but your profile preferences must be set so that readers don't have to log into anything to view your submission.

2. To enter your response in the christinaswwworld prize competition, post YOUR REAL NAME, YOUR CITY/COUNTRY and the LINK to your do-good dream challenge response in a comment at the bottom of this post (starting with http://) before 1 December 2008. Do NOT submit your full response or a link to any webpage that does not have a do-good dream response on it or you will be deleted.

3. The page at the link you submit must include your Do-Good Dream Challenge response and a link back to this post (http://christinaswwworld.blogspot.com/2008/09/get-ready-for-do-good-dream-challenge.html) .

4. Your response to the challenge must include the following 3 elements:
  • A destination for starting life in another country for a while, where your children can attend an international school. You must change countries at least once for at least 5 years, and feel free to map out more than one destination over the 15 years. (For the purpose of this challenge, you must pretend you have school age children even if you really don't. Your destination must offer an international school.)

  • A basic action plan for making the world a better place wherever you've decided to live. Let your own passions dictate the kind of long term change you'd like to be a part of in the world. Let your own experience, connections, and (possible) educational needs shape your immediate starting point. Include a timeline for how long you would want to live where, and what you would hope to do to occupy yourself. Finally, tell us one thing you would like to be able to say you achieved after your years in paid service to humanity are over.

  • A financial plan for how you will spend, invest, and/or increase your available financial resources (see above) to cover your family's travel, moving and basic living costs while at the same time thinking about your old age. Do a little research, and think about what would be wise and safe to do with your cash in today's turbulent economic times.
By the way, I never promised this challenge would be easy!

Let my $150 inspire you to inspire others to think global, by taking the unspoken do-good dreams inside of you to another level. Who knows? Maybe YOUR do good dream will be December's wwwinner! Or better yet - maybe an angel will see it here, and help you to make it happen.

Have fun dreaming about how much good you could do for the world if you decided to, and good luck convincing christinaswwworld readers that your entry is worthy of their vote in the December poll at ned.com!

Housekeeping:
  • Be subscribed to this blog by email (do that in the right column), and logged in with a blogger ID when you post your name, city/country and link in a comment to this post (anonymous commenters are disqualified from winning the $150).
  • Subscribed readers from any country with moneygram or western union services are welcome to participate.
  • Be sure to use the city and name that matches your identification so that you will be able to claim your prize money through moneygram or western union when you win.
  • Christina and christinaswwworld readers reserve the right to make any part of your do-good dream a reality in their own lives. Don't post proprietary plans or ideas that you don't want others to steal.