Current e-Journal

We’re back! Taking several weeks to rest and regroup was so valuable. Feeling revived and ready, those few weeks created some powerful conditions for our success.

Because Creating the Future is not a hospital or food bank where people’s lives rely on our work, we had the privilege to go quiet for several weeks. What we learned by doing so is that we can create conditions for our success as changemakers, whether we have a week or only an hour.

Here is just some of the wisdom we're taking into our lives and our work.

Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late
We all have a tendency to wait until everyone is a hot mess before we say, “It sounds like you need some rest. Take the rest of the week off…”

Instead, we need to plan for our success. Because who are we fooling? If we don’t calendar that time, we will just fill the weeks and months with more and more.

Given how much we all rely on our calendars and to-do lists, those tools can also work for us to calendar our health. For your work, that might include one afternoon every 2 weeks to hole up in a movie theater, watching action movies or comedies. It might be a whole week every 2 months, that you plan ahead for.

And that time away from work? It’s NOT for catching up on laundry and errands. What will it take for you to truly rest your brain?

• Can someone pick up the kids?
• Can we be sure the laundry is done before that week starts?

And importantly, can coworkers refrain from texting with questions?

Whatever it is, put conditions in place for you to actually rest. Your brain - and your community - need you to do so.

Change of Scene
During Creating the Future’s few weeks of quiet, our founders took off for Alaska. Yes, that included some work. Hildy was the opening keynote for 500 nonprofit leaders, inspiring them to reach for their potential in this nerve-wracking political environment.

After that, though, Hildy and Dimitri took a week to immerse themselves in a very different environment than they are used to, a complete change of scene and change of routine.

To create a change of scene, you don't have to fly somewhere fabulous. You just need to find a physical environment that will get your brain out of the do-do-do loop.

Sit in a park. Help out at an animal rescue (being with animals can be super calming). Go to an art museum or connect with nature.  

This can be one afternoon per month, or it can be part of a whole week off. Bottom line, a change of scene has been proven to help clear our minds.

Find Rainbows
Rainbows don’t happen on a sunny day. To experience the joy of a rainbow, we need to first experience the grey, the clouds, the rain. Only when the clouds break and the sun peeks through do we get the promise of something better.

But the storm comes first. The darkness before the light.

Catalytic Thinking focuses us on creating what will be possible when our problems are no longer there. During dark times, aiming at the rainbow after the storm is what will lead us beyond always playing defense.

That is not always easy to do when we’re in the thick of the work. That is another reason it is so important to take time away, to give ourselves the space to create what is possible. What do we want life to be like after this period is over?

That perspective can create a more holistic context for today’s battles, seeing those battles as just one step in the journey to the humane world we are seeking to create. That is one of the greatest gifts of taking time away, reminding us of the real reason we are doing the work we do.

Joy as Rebellion
“Anyone who tells you that making time for joy — however you define it — is a distraction or a betrayal has no idea what they’re talking about. During the darkest days of the AIDS Crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced at night. The dance kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for. It didn’t look like we were going to win then and we did. It doesn’t feel like we’re going to win now but we could. Keep fighting, keep dancing.”

Those are the words of LGBTQ activist Dan Savage. And we couldn’t say it better.

Beyond the brain-clearing power of joy...
Beyond the endorphins released by laughing...
Beyond the psychic reconnecting that nature or time with animals provides…

Beyond the fact that joy provides the foundation for us to be at our best as changemakers…

Joy is an act of rebellion. It reminds us of the rainbows we are seeking to create when the storm is over.

In all of this, remember that rest is not a “guilty pleasure.” It is a requirement for your health. Your community needs you to be at your best, and "Overworked You" is not anywhere near your best.

That is why Catalytic Thinking focuses on creating what we want for our world and our lives, and then leads us to create the steps that will make that vision an achievable reality. Because in these unsettling times, that is not just what will get us through, but what will create the future we ultimately want to see.