Current e-Journal
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November 5, 2024
What DO you have control over?
In this week’s Systems Change Newsletter…
- Invitations and Announcements
- Catalytic Thinking Exercise: What DO you have control over?
- Resources to Further Your Practice
Invitations & Announcements
The Creating the Future Podcast!
What does it take to create sweeping, visionary, systemic change? That is the topic Hildy discusses with her guests in our brand new podcast series! From historians and futurists to community organizers and movement leaders, these conversations are energizing. We can absolutely create the future we want for our world. Listen here and follow along!
Catalytic Thinking Exercise:
What DO you have control over?
Here in the U.S., it’s Election Day. The whole world is watching, waiting. The feeling of uncertainty can be overwhelming. In such a volatile environment, regardless of who wins, we will likely continue to feel a sense of uncertainty, that feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it’s not just Americans who are feeling that. For better or worse, what happens in the U.S. affects the whole world.
But it’s not just the election. These days it feels like it’s everything. The crisis in Gaza and beyond. Hurricanes. Drought. Here in the U.S., access to women’s healthcare. And then the actual fires brought on by climate change.
There is so much that we have no control over. It can feel overwhelming.
What we forget in those circumstances is that
there is always something over which we DO have control.
It could simply be our thoughts about the situation, or it could be actual actions we can take.
If we are to keep our sanity and continue to fight for a better world, that is where we have to remember to focus. Because we can’t build strength upon weakness. If we are to do the work we’ve all committed to do, we must remember that strength builds upon strength.
So where, then, can we find that strength when there is so much that is outside our control?
Try this:
The only antidote to the hopelessness of fatalism and existential dread is to focus on what you CAN control. That’s why the few minutes you will take to do this week’s exercise can change everything.
1) Breathe: Take a deep breath to quiet your mind. In times of stress, we are not just figuratively holding our breath, but literally forgetting to breathe, taking only shallow breaths. So take this moment to get some oxygen into those lungs. And as you take that deep breath in, remember to take a deep cleansing breath OUT.
2) List at least 5 things you have control over, no matter how small.
I have control over _______________
3) Notice: Did any of the items on that list surprise you? What did you feel as you thought about the things you DO have control over?
Try this practice every day for a week. You might do it once in the morning as you are anticipating the day, or in the evening, after the day’s occurrences have all piled up in your head. Because it only takes 2 minutes, try doing both.
In addition to practicing this in your personal life, bring this conversation into your staff meetings and your planning sessions.
- In your community, what CAN you control?
- In your programs, what CAN you control?
- In your conversations with elected officials, with fellow citizens, with community partners – what CAN you control?
As you make your lists, you will become more aware of your own self-talk, as you will be listening to yourself through the lens of Catalytic Listening. This is powerful, because your self-talk – and how you listen to yourself - is another thing over which you DO have control.
Sometimes just the simple act of listing those 5 things is enough to help your shoulders relax a bit. At other times, it is helpful to take action – to do one of the things you’ve identified.
Either way, being mindful of the things over which you have control can change the feedback loops in your brain. That simple act of interrupting the fear-based feedback loop will allow you to access the part of the brain that can insert reason and creativity into the conversation you are having with yourself.
Whatever happens today, no matter who wins this election, we will all have a ton of work to do. We can only accomplish all that work if we focus on what we do have control over, building strength upon what is already strong.
That is why this exercise – and all of Catalytic Listening – is such an important part of the Catalytic Thinking framework.
Resources to Further Your Practice:
- READ: The power to listen differently can change whole conversations and relationships. Read more here…
- LEARN: Scarcity of resources is one of the most powerful “we have no control” loops. This short class on Collective Enoughness will help you find resources that are hiding in plain sight, all around us. Even the tuition is “Pay what you can!” Find it here...
- LISTEN: This beautiful conversation with poet Ocean Vuong focuses on something over which we all have control – the words we speak and write. Thanks to Joyce Lee-Ibarra for sharing this one! Listen here…
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eJournal Archives:
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