I recently had a “aha” moment and it made me develop a sense of relief and grief at the same time. What a contradiction, right?
I recently watched Kate Raworth, the creator of the concept “Doughnut Economics“, where she proposes such a compelling economic transformation, it made me think I have never seeing that one before. Yes, the doughnut framework is no different from other overwhelming images, where you try to combine several concepts in one diagram, finding yourself moving your head in a pendulum while lifting an eyebrow.
However, what she is trying to tackle is no ordinary thing. Complexity tends now a days to be better explained by the shape of a circle or sphere. And as she lands her concept in the real world, she refers to the forces that drive progress from the 20th to the 21st century, making visible a clear misalignment between purpose and execution. For me, that has been a huge relief because now I understand the systemic imperfection we live in.
Now, as a side effect, it produced grief on me because I also have come to terms with the fact that we are pursuing short term gains while aiming at long term results. Yes, we do live in such a dichotomy.
The problem is, this mindset is not sustainable and we are lacking patience and vision to come forward with a better system for progress. Systemic change will happen only if we tackle small problems at a time, instead of trying to eat the cake in one bite.
This is where the term impact comes around. We will find ourselves wondering, how to shift things around and the main question will be: “how can I make a change and how can I regenerate the way we are living?” For me, the word Impact encompasses this intention.
So, how do we find the means to live differently, make an impact and face this challenge?
A simple answer I offer you is, start with WHY and end with HOW and not the other way around. In other words, find your higher purpose first, connect with your surroundings and then sync it back to your reality. Believe me, that will raise points of tension, and that is where you find the battle ground to create avenues to create an impact while finding purpose in your day to day.
Watch de video here