Where did the joy go, and do we have to find it - or has it been there waiting for us all along. And, how will that help us continue on with our climate or social impact leadership work?
Because this amazing activist/organizer brought up and emphasized JOY, I was extra inspired by the Pulling the Thread podcast episode with Shannon Watts, Founder of Moms Demand Action. She’s onto something big...
“I just don’t think people will stay engaged if there isn’t that joy”
This 1000% aligns with the direction my head and work have been going lately. I keep talking about climate influence and how connected it is with our personal joys. It even, very organically, came up with lots of my Living Change podcast guests (especially biking mayors/leaders).
So, I’ve been asking myself: what if we wrapped even our toughest challenges (climate change, democracy, immigration!) up in JOY? How would we become more resilient for taking on the hard stuff?
The joy in biking for transportation (as opposed to simply recreational or fitness-related - which I always want to highlight) is in riding for everyday trips. My experience doing just this for about 30 years now has been key to my focus on cities when it comes to climate influence. (Personal joy becomes climate action, FTW.)
And, bonus points, when it comes to cities: I find so much joy in being among a range of people, experiencing lots of culture, and all of the ways my brain and soul expand among a diverse collective, as I’ve found in Seattle. I wish THIS joy for so many more people!
I also believe that my joy in transitioning to a plant-based diet (8 years ago now) has brought much more richness and drive to my food systems shift focus and IT’s massive climate influence potential.
Anyway - I recorded another quick message post today, along these lines:
What brought us joy as kids?
Why don't we do that now?
And if we did, how would that feed our souls?
How would that change our minds?
How would that shift things?
towards the person that we would be when we are involved in the,
the harder core climate and social impact and democracy fights.
And:
So you can drop the scrolling,
the doom scrolling,
and sit outside with your dog and just pet your dog and you won't believe how
quickly that can shift how you feel.
And you can skip the networking meetings and all of these go, go, go things.
Hit a brew pub with some new friends that's like a walk away in your neighborhood.
So what are you fighting for?
***
I see joy as a POWERFUL climate, impact and democracy leadership differentiator.
When I interview people, it is always at that point when we get to their personal daily joys (riding their kids to school on their ebike, for example) that we really lean in, the room expands, the vibe shifts into higher gear and the fun, open sharing begins.
We should want this in our connections with our fellow humans, especially our collaborators in advocacy, activism, and LEADERSHIP, always.
I’m going to keep exploring and sharing, so thanks for being on this ride (wink!) with me, and let me know the little ways you find joy AND how you see that dot connect to your leadership work.
This is the gold worth sharing.
And - you may want to follow Shannon Watts, if you aren’t already:
Bits and pieces:
Looking forward to seeing some of you at the Bloomberg Green event in Seattle in July.
Catch my *very fun* conversation with David Miller of C40 Cities for the Cities 1.5 podcast. We talk JOY in biking for transportation (imagine that!), climate influence and the power of city leadership (even now…)
I am honored to be a judge for the Green Stories Project, which focused on writing for a sustainable future.
***
Thank you for reading, listening and following along. If you are on Bluesky or LinkedIn, I will see you there. A lot more of my archived content and links are here.
For my conversations with leaders who are breaking through, check out Living Change: A Quest for Climate Leadership . And, stay tuned for updates about my new podcast, Climate Influence, with Andrea Learned.
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