The world is kicking it up on various fronts and each morning feels like the beginning of yet another Groundhog Day of ill-informed news bites, strategically engineered sound bites, and issue-upon-issue to weigh the average person down.

I sometimes wonder why, as we approach the quarter mark of this century.

Yes you read that right.

We find ourselves still yet to have accomplished things that were once thought within reach.

We find ourselves yet to have solved the number of problems that our ancestors fought to solve within their lifetime.

Equality. Fairness. Justice for all not for some. Wealth equity. Safety and a place for everyone to call home. Good health and wellbeing for everyone in our societies, not simply the few who can, at the mercy of the many who can not.

And yet, we still live in a world where these things are fought for every single day.

A world where racism and misogyny in the workplace are unfortunately real.

Where domestic violence rates, Indigenous incarceration rates and the ever-increasing temperature of our finite blue dot floating in space are the unfortunate repetitions of our news cycles each night.

Needless to say, for businesses and institutions seeking to solve some real-world, impactful problems; the world is filled with them and they are not going away in a hurry.

For a leader seeking to establish a footing and stand for something; the world is their oyster to champion a cause they care about.

And yet, the silence is deafening as the majority carry on as if the unfortunate state of the world is a simple flick of the finger in a social media stream. The problems too big and too hard to comprehend in our lifetime.

As the majority strive to simply put food on the table and keep their own children safe, well and happy.

I was recently told that I should be grateful for the arc of progress because ultimately, I was told, it will 'bend towards justice'. That our journey through this life is ultimately one that is always moving towards a world that is better. That we have progressed on various fronts and in various ways incrementally and that we, today, should be grateful for that.

As I think about this, I see a daydream of unreality and a narrative that suits those that do not and have not ever truly struggled.

I see a world filled with people who ignore reality in favour of living in a self-created bliss. A delusion of comfort, not of good.

It is our work as leaders, with our gifts of creativity, our ability to think for ourselves and our never-ending search for what is good that will bend everything we can possibly get our hands on towards a world that is better. Not at some point in the distant future, but today.

In every decision and choice we make. With every effort sustained, and every time we come together to make change with intent; because we are stronger when we do so.

If we sit here on our hands, grateful for increments over generations. We will never see the change we hope for and our purposeful endeavours were mere window-dressing that made us feel that we were doing something good for this moment when in fact, we were doing it do well, at the mercy of the moment itself.

The great African American Author and Nobel Prize Winner Toni Morrison (Literature, 1993) told us that "...this is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair. No place for self pity. No need for silence. No room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilisations heal."

Doing nothing, being silent, not standing for anything. Giving up. Turning away. Throwing our hands up in the air.

These are not options.