Method Initiative (Round 4) – Exercise 9 – Second Personal Essay
For the first time ever, I’ve made it to the final exercises in Josh Spodek’s Initiative book on bringing your passions to life. It took four rounds of going back to square one and building up a project and over 4 years, but I finally found a project that resonated enough with me to keep wanting to push forward: a nature-themed story sharing event.
My Project’s Origins
The project started as a simple idea: preaching sustainability doesn’t work any more than preaching about veganism does. The facts, figures, and science don’t get people to change their behavior. What’s the most effective form of sharing information and influencing people that we have that has stood the test of time? Storytelling.
I love stories in all forms – from video games to books to movies to spoken stories shared around a dinner table. Stories are so much more than just entertainment: They teach you lessons, they help you to understand the feelings of others, they connect people and build strong communities, they can make you feel powerful or helpless, they can help you figure out who you are as a person, they can be used for good or as a weapon to harm, they have helped some of the world’s most famous and infamous people make their mark on history.
Once I thought about this, the answer to “How do you encourage more people to live more happily, healthfully, and in a way that is more in balance with the world we live on?” the answer became obvious: we need to bring more people stories that make them feel more connected to their fellow people and to the nature that we are a part of. Stories that spread values such as caring for yourself, caring for others, and leaving the world in a better place.
The Problem This Project Solves
We see it in the news and hear stories all the time now: nature being destroyed, nature beginning to push back (wildfires, diseases), and people who are starting to rise up and fight for a future. People are beginning to wake up to the fact that the fundamental ideas we’ve built our society on for decades might not be in our best interests. A world of unlimited resources and capitalism where we take all we can for as much monetary gain as we can get, a world where we all have to study and graduate so we can becoming a contributing member of society that consumes the goods of capitalism…It’s now starting to show signs that we’ve gone too far. That we’ve now done irreparable harm to the planet and our lifestyles are now hurting ourselves and others in a very serious way.
Many are beginning to want change.
But almost no one understands how to change. In a vast majority of people who live for “unlimited growth” and heavily polluting consumerism, to anyone who just wants a simple life that is happy, healthy, and doesn’t harm others feels like an outcast, lonely, with little community.
I hope that an event like mine would create a space to begin to create that community.
The Campfire
The Campfire, as it exists in my mind right now, is an event where people come to share their amazing, terrifying, life-changing, or simply peaceful, happy memories and stories from nature with others. At The Campfire, people gather and for anyone who would like to share a story, they are given 5 minutes to come on stage with some basic guidelines (must be your own story, must involve nature in some way, no profanity, obscene content, etc.), and some recommendations (a story that changed you in some way, share emotions, describe colorfully, etc.).
The sessions will always conclude with a chance for the guests to mingle and connect after the event, and offer guests a chance to take their stories and join a workshop that shows them how to turn their stories into actions that will lead to a happier and healthier life that will also be more in balance with nature (coming soon).
My Experience with Taking Initiative
In general, my experience with going through Josh’s Initiative methodology has been one that is empowering, very education, has helped me to grow as a person, and has challenged me in ways that I’ve never been challenged before. In a previous iteration on a past project, I had to cold call people who “felt the problem” to learn more about how they feel. At the time, it felt like one of the most daunting things I’ve ever done in my life, but now that I’ve done it, I feel empowered.
Initiative has taught me that almost any project is possible, if you’re willing to just iterate on asking for advice and talking to people who feel the problem – with enough iterations eventually you reach a project that will solve a problem for people, and after going through the exercises, you’ve probably fully thought out a solution that people will pay you for. I’ve learned that it’s not just about me and what I know, I now know that for all the gaps in knowledge I could have for my project, others can fill those gaps, and often people are eager to and want to help you. I truly do feel like I could make any project I want to work. It seems stupidly simple now, but as long as you talk to enough people and consider advice seriously, your project will eventually work.
It’s also helped create a mind-shift for me when I think about work and jobs. I used to believe that when you want to find a job, it’s all about selling yourself; how can you polish up your skills and highlight all the things you do to make an employer like you and want to hire you.
I no longer think that’s the way to get a job.
An employer, just like an Initiative project, has many problems, and it’s up to you to come up with the solutions. It’s nuanced, but I’ve changed from a “me-focused” way of thinking, to a “problem-focused” way of thinking. What problem is an employer trying to solve, and how can you solve it? You may not even have all the skills necessary to directly solve the problem yourself, but after Initiative, you can show an employer you know how to fill any gaps in your knowledge, which makes you a very strong resource to have.
My Growth From Initiative
Initiative has helped me to draw some lines – that is, to recognize realize what my strengths are and where I need support. It’s forced me to take some time to think about where my gaps in knowledge and ability are and more importantly, find out how to fill them. The exercises have brought me to a point where it feels like there really isn’t much you can’t do as long as you have the will to continue and the humility to ask for advice.
The Legacy I Want To Leave
I’ve done four rounds of Initiative exercises. Every single one has come to closer and closer to something that I feel is ME. Something that is what I could both do for others, but also feel satisfied myself by doing.
Most importantly, Initiative has further clarified a goal I’ve always thought about: I want to help drive a shift to a world that’s better for you. And for me. And for my kids. And for your kids. We need a better world, and I want to be on the right side of history, assuming we end up surviving the mess the human race has put itself in.
If someone 50 years from now is reading this, I hope it’s remembered that I tried to push the needle in the right direction, and Initiative exercises helped me do it.
It’s a goal that is quite possibly too grandiose, idealist, and likely impossible, but I think that in a world where the majority of the population is blindly marching overconfidently towards a cliff that not only spells disaster for our own species, but also for many other species on the planet, maybe that is exactly what we need – thinking that is apart from what has become normal and accepted, and rather than being focused on convenience and dopamine-inducing, short-term pleasure, we can move to a society that cares about our own long-term health, happiness, well-being, and a bright and thriving future.
The Final Exercise
It’s now on to the final exercise: to speak to 10 valuable people in my field. I’m not too nervous for this exercise, partially because the previous exercises have prepared me for it, but also because the people I will be looking to talk to will be similar to those I spoke to for the previous exercise. I haven’t had any negative experiences yet, so I’m looking forward to getting more great advice and watching my project grow further.
Thanks for reading!
