Making meaning investments in the things we value comes next. But the world isn’t constructed to help us do that. Life gets busy – child care, elder care, careers, home and car maintenance, and daily chores consume our lives. If you don’t make space for investing in meaning you’re bound to be disappointed in the most important parts of your life.
Making Meaning Advocating for the Environment
In my eight years as chair of my town’s Environmental Commission, I experienced both the highs and the lows of working as an advocate for the environment. On the plus side, there were the accolades of peers and professionals in the environmental field, the prestigious Jefferson Award, winning grants for projects designed to secure the scientific underpinnings of our positions, and the reward of actually seeing some of our most environmentally sensitive spaces protected or preserved.
On the minus side, there are the endless political squabbles, watching plants and wildlife extinguished before my eyes by inappropriate development, feelings of powerlessness, slashing of enforcement budgets, public apathy, and the glacial pace of progress.
So how do some people manage to keep battling uphill year after year without giving up? The difference between the environmentalists who are successful and those who burn out is their ability to acknowledge and execute the exhausting work that is necessary to change societal attitudes and environmental regulations without having it affect their internal reasons for choosing to work in the environmental field.
Cultivating the Inner Environmentalist coaching is all about making that process conscious.
I work with people who are struggling with purpose, meaning, and life choice issues related to their environmental specialties: Environmentalists who want to make better choices that result in a life’s work that speaks to their souls.
- Have you met environmentalists who are invigorated by their vocation, but can’t seem to generate that spark in yourself?
- Do you feel like you’re going through the motions of your job or running an organization without getting any enjoyment?
- Are you unsure about where or how to invest your time, energy, or money next?
- Do you feel that you’re doing all of the right things, but the results you generate still don’t reflect the true you?
- Do you have trouble believing that your efforts really matter?
- Are you concerned that you need to make some important changes but don’t know where to start?
- Do you second-guess your choices and keep switching from one thing to another?
- Are you frequently bored or anxious with your work?
Cultivating the Inner Environmentalist coaching is not about environmental work itself, but about putting professionals and volunteers in a mental space that allows them to develop an intimate, holistic relationship with their calling.
Through a series of assignments and exercises you’ll learn how to rediscover and focus on the things that really matter to you about your occupation, restore meaning to your efforts, or return to a much-loved project.
