Decide Your Destiny

We live in a world of constant change: in Scouting, in the Order of the Arrow, in our nation, and in the wider world around us. The amount of knowledge in the world grows at an exponential rate. 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data are created daily; 90% of all of the data in the world was created in the past two years alone. With immediate access to information across the globe, we are better connected and more well-informed than we’ve ever been before.

Yet even with all of this data, we still find it hard to make decisions – and harder still to know how to make the right ones. Sometimes we get so caught up in what we know, we prevent ourselves from choosing what to do.

A person is the sum of their decisions. We are faced with choices each day, large and small, with consequences that extend far into the future. In making those decisions, we each can shape our own unique destinies — particularly as leaders, where we as Arrowmen are called on to make the most difficult of decisions.

Learning how to make the best decisions is not a journey upward or forward, but a journey inward. This journey is not like following a linear trail, such as when scaling a summit; it’s more like working our way through a maze. Every time we come to a fork in the road, we have to make a decision; and each decision made brings us closer to the center, or pushes us further outward.

Throughout this national conference, you’ll have experiences that will help you determine what you want your destiny to be; to determine for yourself what’s at the center of your personal “maze.” Each part of the conference, from the activities to the training sessions to the shows and gatherings, can give you the information and insight you need to help you make the best decisions that will bring you to your own center. We look forward to joining you as we run this maze together and use this conference to help each one of us decide our destinies.