A letter to the cynics who are waiting for the world to change
Politics or technology won't change the world for the better. People do. So ditch the excuses and claim your power.
This newsletter encourages personal development as a means for positive change. This is because I believe that all change starts with the individual. All enlightenment happens within an individual. All that is inspiring is caused by an individual.
Many people think it’s trivial to speak about individual agency. That the burdens of the world shouldn’t be placed on the citizens’ shoulders, and that we should talk about systemic change instead of personal development.
To that, I respond: Aren’t systems created by individuals? Aren’t decisions driven by individuals? Aren’t governments and boards comprised of individuals?
It was Nelson Mandela who fought the battle against apartheid. It was Rosa Parks who inspired the bus boycott that led to the end of racial discrimination in public buses. It was Greta Thurnberg who gave a voice to young climate activists at arenas such as The World Economic Forum.
All big events and changes have people’s names attached to them.
You have more power than you think
One of my favourite quotes is from the author Alice Walker: “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.”
And this passage from another author, Rebecca Solnit from her book Hope in the Dark:
“The sleeping giant is one name for the public; when it wakes up, when we wake up, we are no longer only the public: we are civil society, the superpower whose nonviolent means are sometimes, for a shining moment, more powerful than violence, more powerful than regime and armies. We write history with our feet and with our presence and our collective voice and vision. And yet, and of course, everything in the mainstream media suggests that popular resistance is ridiculous, pointless, or criminal, unless it is far away, was long ago, or, ideally both. These are forces that prefer the giant remain asleep.”
When we say we are powerless, we remain invisible and passive. We also avoid the risk of embarrassing ourselves. Many of us are afraid of appearing naive, so we resort to cynicism instead. As if hoping for a better future somehow makes us foolish.
Yet, many people have managed to change things that are bigger than themselves.
No, they didn’t do it alone. But they still did something.
For example, the story of the #MeToo movement started with an activist called Tarana Burke, who coined the phrase ‘me too’ back in 2006 to encourage women of colour to speak up about sexual violence. Burke herself was a victim of childhood abuse and worked actively with other young survivors who felt that the phrase helped them feel less alone. Burke is often credited as the founder of the #metoo movement, even though it was actress Alyssa Milano’s tweet in 2017 that spiralled the social media movement. Suddenly, women all over the world started sharing their stories of sexual misconduct. According to Britannica, Milano’s tweet inspired over 55,000 tweets using the #MeToo hashtag every day in the following year. Later on, Milano acknowledged Burke for the original phrase. Since then, Milano and Burke have appeared together in several photos and articles related to the topic.
Identify your power with this simple framework
I personally love this coaching tool, which I learned about in a Finnish book on career coaching written by the philosopher and work-life developer Kai Alhanen and his colleagues. The tool helps us evaluate our power and influence in any given situation and effectively communicates that we always have some level of agency.
We, as individuals, can’t necessarily stop global leaders from making idiotic decisions. But we can impact who gets to lead by voting.
Or we might have the worst boss in the world but we can still either a) change our job or b) learn to deal with the boss without losing our sh*t.
Claiming powerlessness is a distraction more than anything. It prevents us from focusing our efforts and taking action.
So, going back to my original point about personal development…
We need to get open and honest about who we are and what we stand for. When we know our values and priorities in life, we can claim our agency to create real change and hope in this world. And choose careers that align with who we are and what we wish to create.
These questions might seem personal, yet they become political when we eventually start taking action in this world. You can claim power in multiple ways. A few examples:
You can join the global movement of social enterprises and start a company where purpose surpasses profit.
You can become one of the activists who persuade old industries to stop destroying the planet.
You can become the content producer who brings together equity and environmental justice.
You can create the online program that helps tens of thousands of people switch to veganism.
You can become the comedian who pairs up with climate scientists to create more engaging climate conversations.
So please, don’t let powerlessness or hopelessness be the excuse you use to distract yourself. You have power, but you might have chosen to leave it unused or used it on things that are very far from your values and ideals.
If so, it’s okay.
But life is short, so get on board and create a life and career that ignites hope in you.
There’s no better time than now.
With kindness,
Aurora