The most exciting thing that I've ever realized about being a human, the thing that fills

me with the most sense of power and control is, as Charles Darwin said, it's not the strongest

of the species that survived nor the most intelligent, but rather the most adaptive to change.

Once I understood that humans are an adaptation machine, that are evolutionary role, the thing

that has made us the most dominant creature on the planet, the only creature capable of contemplating

its own existence, getting ourselves off this planet, a building technology that rules

us forward and allows us to actually take control of the adaptation process to literally

rob Mother Nature of her power is our ability to adapt. But if our job is to be an adaptation machine,

if the brain, if what it is designed to do, is allow us to change, then we have to ask what

direction are we changing it? To what end?

As Leo Tolstoy pointed out, everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing

themselves. So if you want to impact change, I promise you, the thing that you're going to have to

do is turn inward, all of the space, the grandeur, the things that you're thinking about in the outside

world, pale in comparison to what you will see if you turn inward and begin to take hold of that

process. And as you begin to take that process into your hands, as you begin to shape it, as you

begin to craft it, you need to remember one thing. As Larry Page said, being negative is not how we

make progress. But where do most people spend their time? Where do most people apply their energies?

Possibly focusing on what's wrong. And just by putting your energy into that, just by focusing on

the things that are broken, and instead of asking yourself what you can build and what you can fix,

you'll never be able to move forward. You'll never be able to take advantage of the fact that we've

gotten here, that we've stood on the moon, because we can change, because we can learn, because we

can grow in a self-directed fashion. So make no mistake right now what you're choosing to focus on

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