Since I live in Washington DC and given that there is a new administration who is looking forward to accomplishing a lot in their first 100 days in office, I too am starting a 100 days challenge to create my own agenda. Why am I doing this? Because we all have the same 24 hours and the ability to govern ourselves according to our own mandate.

Regardless of your political affiliation I challenge you to also take the #first100dayschallenge because you too have the ability to create your own agenda just like our new government administration. No matter if you agree or disagree with our governments' vision take action by creating your agenda and perhaps someday you too will be given the opportunity to implement your vision for a better country and world. 

Over the next 100 days I will seek to maximize my schedule with as many international related experiences, meetings and actions as possible and will recap about what I did during the day on this blog.

I have no idea what will transpire as a result of this, but I do know that after reading "Getting Things Done" as long as I write down my next actions and set up reminders I will achieve my outcome.  

Met Dr. Klaus Schwab

Attended the Northeast WEF Shapers Retreat

Co-authored an article about Rotary International

Pimnuch works in the food space, so I get fed all the time. We tried Sri Lankan food for the first time and it was amazing. 

30th bday with friends.

Lately I've been intrigued with the idea of how does one become a better planner? As a former baseball player getting it right 3 out of 10 times was fantastic, but in any sector that is atrocious. So how do we build a continuous improvement culture? Meet Lean Six Sigma.

It's about process improvement. If you want to improve then you must first start with understanding where you're at and try to improve it. 

Yesterday Rotary International hosted the youth leadership awards and asked our Rotaract chapter to help. Our team was assigned the lower ropes challenge with various groups of 13-16 year olds. 

First challenge, tie 20 knots in the 25 foot rope and have the groups untie the knot together using only their right hand. 

Second challenge, make a shape together using the 25 foot rope while blindfolded.

Final challenge, walk a course together in unison while lassoed by the rope.  

Lessons learned: when you’re resource limited you must pool your teams resources to accomplish the mission.

In life many times we walk into a situation blindfolded, but how you find your way is by communicating correctly by asking the right asking the right questions to your team and by trusting that they follow instructions.

There’s the old saying “Individually you’ll get there faster, but together you’ll get there farther.” They learned that in order to finish the course they must all walk together because if not, they would be bound by the rope and ultimately fall. 

My name is Josue Lopez Calderon and I am a 2015 Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar. Thank you Aspen Institute Trustees, festival patrons and past scholars because this experience would not have been possible without you. 

The truth is, prior to receiving one of the best emails of my life (nomination/selection), I had never heard of the Aspen Ideas Festival. But after witnessing this grand phenomenon in person, I promise to raise awareness of your work. 

I am a big believer in the power to convene and other than the White House, I had never seen an organization attract such a diverse group of global thought leaders until I met the Aspen Institute. Therefore I am writing this post to forever remember this week, to give thanks to you all and to promote among other young professionals so that someday they may participate in this once in a lifetime event. 

Last month I began a Bahasa Indonesian class at the Indonesian Embassy of Washington D.C.

I love ASEAN, thus I aspire to be proficient in Bahasa, Thai and perhaps another language from the region. I believe that ASEAN and Latin America/Caribbean have a lot in common and want to build a bridge between them and the U.S. through our Diasporas. Furthermore, Indonesia is a great country with a lot of potential and someday will continue to become a global leader. 

As for the language? So far I love Bahasa. I discovered that there are many similar words between Portguese/Spanish and Bahasa such as: bola = ball, bendera = flag, meja = table, roda = wheel, tiempo = time, dadu = dice. This happened because the Portuguese sailed there from the 16th to the early 19th centuries. 

Another interesting note is that there are  many loan words from Arabic. They are mainly connected with Islam. In fact, the first contact between the two happened in the 5th century during spice trading. It is estimated that upwards of 5,000,000 native Indonesians have Arab ancestry.

To My Dear Future Children,

When I was growing up, your grandparents and I were limited by the technology and resources of our time, thus I write this entry so that when you and other bright minds like you apply for scholarships and fellowships, the following 9 words will never be muttered from your lips the way I regretfully once said them "If I only knew then what I know now". 

Even though I do not know all the answers, I do know this: Mark Twain once said “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Therefore, go out and enjoy the world because it is a vast land filled with abundant foods, languages and cultures.  

Earlier this month, I attended the Passport DC open embassies event and am now on a mission to learn more about different countries and their cultures. Consequently, I am challenging myself to attend 3 cultural events every month, i.e. food, music or language. 

At the end of every month, I will write about my experience and recap the lessons learned from the events. 

This New Year’s I am starting a personal Resolution Revolution. For the first time in my 26 years of age, I am writing this post in order to make a promise and more importantly to hold myself accountable to you all: my friends, family and mentors. If I don’t put my words out there, chances are I will take a day, a week or perhaps a month off, and under no circumstances will I ever cheat myself out of achieving greatness again.

Equally as important, I have learned and embraced this Chinese Proverb "If your vision is for a year, plant wheat. If your vision if for ten years, plant trees. If your vision is for a lifetime, plant people." So here it goes.

About 2 months ago I discovered the Myers Briggs personality test and learned that my letters are ENTP, which according to Buzzfeed’s animal version says that I am a parrot. It also goes on to say that ENTP’s are rationalists who  are outspoken, resourceful and like to generate ideas. Bingo that pretty much sums me up. http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/whats-your-animal-personality-type