(about a 2 to 3 minute read)
Most of us, most of the time, do the things we do for stick, carrot, or avoidance reasons. The problem is that these forms of motivation do not satisfy us. To really thrive, we need to do things for gift reasons.
About a 3 minute read
The logical mind wants to muscle its way to the results we want; when muscle is inadequate to the task, we think we’ve failed and we’re out of options.
The heart, on the other hand, is not afraid to invoke the results we want by the quality of our attention and the power of our desire to give what we don’t physically have to give.
Part 10 of a Series: "When Nothing You Can Do Makes a Difference"
Approximately a 5 minute read
The smallest of the issues you care about is related to, and inseparable from, the largest.
Raising happy, healthy kids and teaching them to care for themselves and others, living a fulfilling and ethical life, animal welfare, forests, communities, species extinctions, re-building soils, cleaning up the oceans, social justice… the list goes on. And on. It is overwhelmingly long.
This final article in this Series explores how you can be sure that even (perhaps especially) the “littlest” things you do are important to the whole, if they’re done with wholesome intent.
Approximately a 5 minute read
It's not easy being green. Among other things, it can mean feeling overwhelmed and grief-stricken and inadequate, with no end to the urgent issues everywhere you look.
You need ongoing replenishment if you are to have any hope of being effective in your efforts to make a difference. Besides that, you deserve to have someone take really good care of you. And if you don’t take care of you, then who will?
Approximately a 5 minute read
In our make-it-happen story of rugged, heroic individualism, "goal achievement" means grunting and sweating, burning the candle at both ends, making herculean efforts.
Not only is this approach unsustainable, but also it keeps us in battle mode. It fits the story of a culture in which drama and conflict are a way of life.
To sustain positive change toward a gentler, more life-affirming story, we can use small, consistent habits, adding up over time to something significant — the same way that silent, imperceptible growth develops a seedling to a sapling, a tree, and finally a towering forest giant.
Part 7 of a Series: "When Nothing You Can Do Makes a Difference"
Approximately a 5 minute read
Life’s urgent and alluring distractions will always be nudging you off the high road and onto the easy path, diverting you from the straight and narrow onto a winding, more scenic route.
That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Knowing that your feet will often stumble onto it, here are two strategies you can use to set up the winding path so that it still ends up going in the right direction.
The first is noticing what triggers you or diverts you into behaviors you weren’t planning on doing when you started your day, and reducing those unhelpful triggers in your environment.
The second is to develop ways to put the human tendency to be easily distracted to good use, by setting up deliberate prompts that help keep you pointed in the right direction.
Approximately a 5 minute read
The idea that you need motivation and will power to reach your goals is part of a story, or world-view, that says that if you use enough of the right kind of force, you’ll get to the goal.
It’s also a story of scarcity – it says there’s not enough time, energy, resources to go around, so you have to grab what you can and make it happen. No pain, no gain.
In this article I’ll introduce an approach to reaching your goals that points toward a different story, one in which we can flow with life rather than struggling against it, and in which we have all the time, resources, and energy we need if we mange them wisely.
Approximately a 5 minute read
It’s possible to be very busy without being very effective. Rushing from one task to another, feeling like you never have enough time to get it all done and being frequently exhausted, overwhelmed and frustrated, rarely feeling that you are achieving anything worthwhile.
It’s equally possible to be less busy, to do less, and yet to live a more spacious, meaningful, satisfying life.
The difference lies in how proactive you are. Does life happen to you, putting you in a state of constant reaction, or do you take the initiative and prioritize important activities over urgent ones?
4 - 5 minute read | Part 3 of a Series | Also published at PermacultureNews.org
The consumer culture has an easy path which leads us to behave like dependent juveniles for our entire lives.
The alternate path—more difficult but very worthwhile—leads to increasing self-determination and self-reliance, which is very bad for the growth economy.
That’s why no profit-focused corporation will ever fund government policies to encourage the public to behave like this.
This article continues on from “Out-Growing Consumerism 2: An Act of Subversion.”