It was September 2005 and I had just finished full-time service with the Australian Army. I was asked to stay on in a Reserve capacity for a particular task. I didn't realise it at the time, but somehow the Universe had delivered an opportunity to realise a lifelong dream.
Persistence. Why is this significant in the context of passion? Well, it serves to illustrate one of the key things Janet and Chris Attwood describe in their book 'The Passion Test' - that when you're doing something that you're absolutely passionate about, lit up about and completely absorbed in, it becomes so easy to persist and get the job done. The passion means that even when obstacles appear HUGE, no part of the equation will allow you to give up.
The task. The task I was assigned was to develop a Strategic Training Program for the community's remote Aboriginal people that would contribute to sustainable positive change. The role I was assigned was Training Development Officer for the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program (AACAP). This was a government-funded endeavour in partnership with the Australian Army (mainly engineers). My task was to do something 'fabulous' that was going to improve health and wellbeing in the community. We would be working in Borroloola in the Northern Territory the following year.
I didn't realise it at the time because I was supposed to be working part-time, but I had landed a HUGE task. My research showed that on the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) scales, our Indigenous people were not travelling too well. My research also highlighted what else was not too flash.
Passion. Guess what was missing? Yep! You guessed right: PASSION. Each week, we produced a newsletter that included a brief interview with the people who attended our 12-week training program. We asked them what they enjoyed about the training program. Without exception, they expressed their excitement about learning new skills, meeting new people and discovering within the process what they loved the most. Our skills, leadership and mentoring program achieved what very few programs had achieved before: engagement of the heart and the mind, as well as practical involvement of a large group of local people giving back to their community.
Our program ran for another two years after Borroloola (in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland and remote Western Australia). In each location, I got to realise a lifelong dream of contributing to the wellbeing of humanity. Much of the time when I was working on AACAP, I was exhausted, shocked and overwhelmed with what I saw: our fellow Australians living in appalling conditions, with unhappiness, drugs, alcohol and gambling undermining the quality of their lives. My passion for doing whatever I could do to contribute was blocked and stymied much of the time; however, persistence came from totally knowing that what I was doing was significant.
The graduation photo (above) means the world to me because the boss (Colonel Kavanagh) said he loved my idea but it wouldn't happen. The artwork (above) was a gift to the training team from David Baker (the community leader's son). I have a copy which hangs on my wall and I get to look at it every day and contemplate my part in making a difference. David's younger brother, who's just completing senior high school in Sydney, recently stated that he intends to be Australia's first Indigenous Prime Minister. I love that I've been part of expanding people's horizons and that Australia absolutely will get to live in peace under one flag.
