Of Passion and Money
Susan Cain points out in her book that brainstorming in an electronic environment is actually more effective than in-person brainstorming (and she backs that up with research findings). So, i decided to see if i can make such a brainstorm happen! If you’d enjoy, please add some strategy ideas in the comments. First, though, keep reading 😉
Here are the passions that emerged through the worksheet with the first passion really what drives my approach to the others, which are listed somewhat in the order of importance to me:
- Be a change catalyst. Changing the way we think about how we live and turning this into action, i.e., living differently, creating a new culture. This requires radical change, not bandages, on a large scale, not just a few individuals here and there.
- Women are prevented from gaining full equality through the threat of violence, including microaggression.
- Marriage prevents democracy. Any hierarchical institution prevents deep democracy.
- Everybody deserves a basic income guarantee to ensure our freedom.
- Climate change will kill us humans unless we collectively change our behaviors in very drastic ways.
At heart, i want to impact deep change – changing the way we think, the way we act, the way we are, really, to make all this other stuff possible, which in a way could be summarized as working toward sustainable deep democracy. (Deep democracy is used by feminist pragmatists to describe a democracy that is both participatory and representative based on John Dewey’s ideas).
Again, i am having trouble how to turn these passions into something i can actually do, though i am guessing i’d start with researching how change has been effected successfully in the past. To enable myself to work with these passions, the strategy i have come up with is to find a job that pays money though is unrelated. That is, obviously, not very satisfying because working on our passions is what lights us up, so i am open to other options as well!
Do you have any other strategy ideas for turning my passions into work and/or for making that work feasible? Please share below! Thank you in advance! 🙂
Share this post with others:
And good financial sense! A friend of mine is working at a nonprofit that has been getting by on loans for years, every year just a little bit more. Now they are so far in debt, they’ve got to lay off staff and fundraise just to pay down their debt. It’s a disaster, and totally could have been averted had someone with good financial sense said, “Uh, we can’t keep running deficits year after year.”
I keep coming back to the same conclusion: We need more marketing/PR skills in the progressive communities… So maybe that’s where i can focus my energies more… We’ll see what emerges…
Rachel, some ideas for possible work- focus……
Thankfully, there are many seriously informative video/film projects circulating to promote environmental and global healing to turn the negative direction around……….besides the ones u linked me to recently, I remember Zeitgeist, and today I stumbled onto 2 more great ones: ‘THE AGE OF STUPID’….. .and also ‘THE OBAMA DECEPTION’ …….both full-length film docu.s……… major, impressive operations tackling humanity’s global challenge from different angles……….
I cant help imagining u finding employment and connections in some such endeavors where modern tech is used and skills like yours are needed (for finance or other purposes u are skilled and interested in professionally)……
The free media (grass roots etc) have so many important projects……and, sure , they don’t pay like banks, but they do pay where they need to, and are seriously professional and passionately commited, (esp. by having to compete with corporate media power)…..
I wonder if u would enjoy researching that and seeking out the career work or at least income, doing what u find meaning in…….:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw
‘THE OBAMA DECEPTION’……full film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuMVk4SU_us
full film ‘The Age of Stupid’…….climate change ‘star’ film
It seems the film, the age of stupid, financed themselves by selling shares in it to many workers ……….. and SUCCEEDED, no bank loans, low, low carbon footprint…..the works…..not completely but extensively……and theres’ a video re their efforts for that……..its creative process…….the investors all got back good profits from its success……….brilliant stuff….i’ll look for the links for u, if ur interested…..
Hey Rachel! I’ll play along 🙂 I like thinking about how we find and do the work that lights us up!
A few questions:
I think it’s helpful to think about purpose both in terms of what issues you are passionate about AND what skills you love to use that you want to contribute. Some questions from Laura Berman Fortgang’s book Living Your Best Life that could help get at the skills:
1) What have people always come to me for? Advice? A loan? A helping hand? Comforting?
2) Who have I been for people? A truth-teller? A disciplinarian? A catalyst? An instigator?
3) What role do I play most often: the teacher? the nurturer? the leader? the risk taker? the healer? the maverick? the motivator? the soother? the peacemaker?
4) Do you have an unfulfilled dream, something you aspire to now or did aspire to at one time? What is possible if you achieve (or had achieved) your dream? How would other people benefit if you reached your dream? Is there an essence to this dream that you could take a small step toward today?
Other questions:
5) If you didn’t have to worry about paying the bills, how would you go about working on any of these things? Is there a group that’s doing great work that you’d join? Or would you have to pioneer something new?
6) Is there a favorite project you have worked on in the past? What made it special?
7) Are you someone who loves to work as part of a smart team? Or someone who prefers to be doing your own thing?
I’ll keep thinking of others 🙂
These are great questions, Dawn! Thanks so much! I’ll noodle around with them for a bit and post my answer in the next day or three…
I think the answer for #5 is captured in my vision, though my confidence-challenge got in the way of pursuing this more… Hmm. Actually, i also got scared because i didn’t see how i could finance that! So, if i didn’t have to worry about paying bills, i would pursue it! I keep thinking that i want to turn my experience of rape & abuse into something healing and transforming for others and the world…
And to #7: I definitely want to work in a team – actually, i’d prefer it being a tribe (“a social organization that facilitates making a living” according to Daniel Quinn). However, i’d also want to be able to withdraw and think/reflect…
Hi Rachel,
I think for this to work, you need to be clear about your strengths and weaknesses. What do you like to do in a job? What do you struggle with? What is particularly difficult, what is easy? If I had a better sense of that, I might be able to help. I do know that you like to write- but can you do it on deadline? Can you write for marketing, analysis, education, etc? Do you like to write at an intellectual level, or can you take it down to the level of a 5th grader (which is recommended for writing for the masses)? Give me a few skills areas and break them down however you can. I can brainstorm from there. This could be fun!
Thanks, Cindy! I’ll respond to your comment with an email… Though actually since Dawn is asking similar questions below, i’ll take the chance and put this out here…
Strength: Writing
Strength: Research
Strength: Analysis
Strength: Teaching/sharing
Weaknesses:
Please feel free to tell me to dig into some of these more deeply! I might also add some more weaknesses as i think of them…