"The negative belief that peace is not possible is the greatest impediment to achieving peace."

-Willis Harman (-1997) Senior Social Scientist at SRI International, President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, globally respected futurist and author of many books including "Global Mind Change".

• What if young people the world over were given easy access to the essential skills that allow Olympians and other successful people to accomplish extraordinary things?
• What if these young people could connect with others their age who are using these skills to achieve their personal goals and are applying the same skills to creating the world they want to live in?
• What if everyone knew that there was one day a year specifically dedicated to connecting all those who want to live in peace, in order to know and celebrate one another and our progress toward peace?

Goal: The goal is to dramatically accelerate our progress toward peace by inspiring all those who want to live in peace to align their best thinking with their desire to live in a world that works for all.

Vision: By the year 2010, the end of the United Nations declared "Decade for the Building of Cultures of Peace", young people the world over will have access to the information, tools and support structures that allow them to be successful personally and to positively impact their world. The International Day of Peace serves an annual day of celebration that inspires and supports people everywhere to envision and be proactive in creating a world that works for all.

Premises:

• People everywhere want to live in peace.
• Most extraordinary things are achieved by ordinary people who have three things in common. Based on the exceptional human performance framework called "Olympian Thinking", when ordinary people accomplish extraordinary things, they are:
  • Passion powered
  • Vision guided
  • Action oriented
  We already have 2 out of 3 elements necessary regarding peace: we have passion, the near universal desire to live in peace, and we have action, people willing to do something when they care deeply and know what to do. However, how most people think about peace is not sufficient to guide effective action.
• Thinking (what you envision) impacts behavior and behavior creates results. Our thinking about peace is fuzzy, poorly informed and negatively impacts our ability to act effectively.
• We are at a time in our human journey when the infrastructure is in place to add the critical third element, vision. We can inspire, mobilize and support all those who want to live in peace to apply their best thinking and act in accordance with their desire to live in peace.

Mission: The purpose of this project is to dramatically accelerate our progress toward peace by inspiring and supporting all people who want to live in peace to apply their best thinking to achieve peace.

This project has a five-part strategy:

• 1. Produce a thinking tool kit that teaches young people how to think like Olympians to achieve their goals and to positively impact their communities.
• 2. Utilize the visibility and credibility of Olympians to inspire young people to want to learn to think like Olympians and equip existing youth service providers to make the skills available.
• 3. Engage community-based organizations to support youth in the use of these thinking skills to realize personal goals and positively impact their communities.
• 4. Utilize the Internet and other communications media to connect young people worldwide with others their age who are engaging these skills to impact their own lives and the world around them.
• 5. Elevate the effectiveness of the International Day of Peace (IDP) as an inspiring worldwide event to inspire, inform, mobilize and support people and organizations doing their part for peace.

Items 1-4 are summarized in the companion document "The Olympian Initiative-Training Kids to Think Like Olympians" which focuses on the youth /education component of this strategy.

We watched Olympians from all over the world competing in Athens and Torino, now imagine what would happen if every child in your community had the same skills and tools that the Olympians used to achieve their goals?

Imagine a city full of young people who are daring to imagine that they can be the carpenters, computer experts, choreographers and business executives of tomorrow. Young people can acquire the same powerful thinking skills Olympians use and transcend challenging environments, overcome destructive daily behavior patterns and actively seek the resources they need to achieve their goals.

The Northern California Olympians (NCO), a regional alumni association of Olympians, has made a commitment to target Oakland as the next step demonstrating what happens when young people are given the inspiration, tools and support to envision and achieve their own gold medals in life. The Olympian Initiative is based on OlympianThinking(tm), a high performance framework developed by Olympic Pentathlete Marilyn King. It utilizes the same thinking skills currently taught to elite athletes, astronauts, corporate executives, and others interested in exceptional human performance.

Building on a successful inner city program called "Dare to Imagine" and designed to be a replicable model, the Northern California Olympians intend to make the program available to young people throughout Oakland and then through their network of Olympians across the United States and internationally. Imagine linking young people in your community with young people from around the world who are using these "Olympian Thinking" skills to achieve success in their own lives and to positively impact the world around them.

Teaming up with existing programs, Olympians will deliver inspirational messages, provide access to success skills and present awards to inspire young people to engage the same skills that allowed the Olympians to achieve their lofty goals. The story of JB, an inner city Oakland youth in the Dare to Imagine program, who overcame some of the most difficult conditions in the inner city and achieved his goals can be found at www.waybeyondsports by choosing the "education" button.

While The Olympian Initiative will make a major contribution in the arena of thinking skills acquisition, it will also expedite the structural changes that must occur as our schools move into the next century. The Olympian Initiative is designed as a comprehensive program that attracts and aligns existing resources to support youth in achieving their goals. It increases the effectiveness of current activities and incorporates bringing community expertise into the school campus in the form of role models, tutors and mentors, as well as making career-enhancement opportunities available to students off campus. It provides teachers with training in new technologies and offers opportunities for cross- curriculum teaching approaches. The program provides outreach and training for parents and directly engages the community in supporting local school programs.

The Olympian Initiative exemplifies the leadership that the NCO continues to exhibit in their efforts to fulfill the original purpose of the modern Olympic Games. According to the founder, Pierre de Coubertin, the purpose of the Games is "to educate youth through sport to create a better and more peaceful world." Olympians, teaming with the community, will fulfill the original purpose of the Games by delivering to the youth of the world, beginning in Oakland, the skills that will allow young people to think like Olympians.

Contact: Marilyn King www.waybeyondsports.com or email: Olympianmk@aolcom