What’s your idea for a better world?

Anyone can come up with a life-changing idea – you don’t have to be a scientist, philosopher or highly paid executive (but of course you can be). You just have to be an observer of life. I also find that hearing other people’s ideas is one of the best ways to ignite my own ideas. So in the spirit of TED, I wanted to spread two more Fast Ideas from TEDxSydney 2017.

Catherine Morgan – artist, designer and astute thinker – presented the following:

‘Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in Australia. The survival rate is less than 10%. Within three to four minutes brain damage can occur.

Defibrillators can be used to restart the heart. But where are they? Could you use one if you knew where to find one?

Imagine if all new vehicles sold in Australia came with a portable defibrillator and training? That could be over 1.1 million people, each year, with the mobile access and education to save your life.’

Meanwhile Annalies Corse, Senior Health Sciences Lecturer at the Australasian College of Natural Therapies, identified the following need:

‘New babies bring immense joy but for parents they also bring an unexpected new phase: a 4th trimester. This period can deliver life-changing losses of independence, identity and excruciating sleep deprivation. Some relationships don’t survive it.

My idea is to establish “4th Trimester Communities” that focus on the nutritional, physical and mental health of the entire family unit.

“It takes a village to raise a child”…yet modern parents are working without a village. It’s time to build that village again.’

What do these ideas spark for you? Are you motivated to learn first aid? Familiarise yourself with the location of your nearest defibrillator? Inspired to start your own 4th trimester community? Or perhaps these ideas have triggered a cascade of completely different ideas of your own.

If you were asked to come up with one idea that would make a positive difference to your health, what would it be?