World Changing – a personal adventure
Posted by Peter Endisch on August 28th, 2007 at 09:30 PDT (Reflections)
“…Individual actions are great, but look for individual actions that will influence others. There’s an old saying that living well is the best revenge. That may be true, but living well is certainly the best argument: when we design our personal lives in such way that we’re doing the right thing and having a hell of a good time, we act as one-person beacons to the idea that green can be bright, that worldchanging can be life-changing.
One of the biggest mental barriers to changing behaviours is the idea that change will be unpleasant. But we know better, and every time we design a bit of our lives to reduce our impact, support good efforts, and make our lives more comfortable, beautiful and exciting, we’re sending a powerful message to everyone around us.
Good intentions are great, but remember that only passion changes the world. There are more avenues for action then even the most motivated overachiever among us could ever pursue. So we shouldn’t try to do everything: we should try to do the right things. When we seize the chance to make changes that are both important and speak to us as people, we transcend good intentions and more meaningfully express who we are. Why be boring? Why follow other people’s instructions for designing a better life? The world needs more passionate people, deeply engaged with the business of designing their own lives in ways that speak to them. From passion comes creativity, and from creativity come better answers.”
- We need better tools, models, and ideas for changing the world. Luckily, more are being created every day
- The more people know about these tools, models and ideas, the better their own ideas will get, and the more ideas will become available
- Anyone can join the conversation, and the more people do join, the better it gets
- The better better the conversation gets, and the more people use the tools, the more exciting the adventure becomes, and the more likely its success.
Consider this an invitation to join the adventure. What kind of future will you create?
From the intro to the book World Changing: a user’s guide for the 21st century
