Mother's Calling. Are You Living On Purpose?

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.                                                     ~Pulitzer-Prize winner Annie Dillard   Your Mother needs you.  Really needs you.  Have you been screening her calls? The Mother I’m referring to is Earth — “mother” of all life.  She’s crying for help; all her kids must pitch in.  What’s your role? You know what’s going on in the world.  You don’t need me to preach at you.  <ul> <li>Multiple disasters loom, within our children’s lifetimes, as a result of the wildly changing global climate</li> <li>Billions of people live in destitute conditions, lacking clean water, adequate nutrition, or access to healthcare</li> <li>We’re running out of cheap energy: the foundation of our economy is crumbling.  Drastic changes in our very way of life will result — definitely within our children’s lifetimes, maybe within ours</li> <li>Our financial and economic systems, many experts say, are on the verge of long-term collapse</li> <li>Elephants, tigers, lions, and thousands of other species are in danger of disappearing from the planet … forever.</li> </ul> I’m sure you have your own pet causes … pet neglect, maybe, or AIDS in Africa, or nuclear disarmament, or the loss of the rainforests, or uninsured Americans, or capturing bin Laden, or corporate greed, or the spiritual malaise that has eroded any sense of meaning from so many lives … But, jeez, you have a business to run…  … and business has to come first, doesn’t it?  When business is good, you have to take advantage of it, working hard to manage the feast, because the famine will come.  And when it does, you’ve got to keep the nose on the ol’ grindstone, marketing, networking, designing, developing ….  Who has time to heal the planet? You do.  You must.  Your Mother needs you.  Really needs you.  She’s quite ill, and it is far too late for despair.  Far too late to be too busy to help.  She's not asking for a full-time commitment.  She's asking you to just take a single step — toward the edge of your comfort zone — and when you’re ready, another … We have seen the light at the end of the tunnel, and it is an oncoming train.  We have passed the point where a few brilliant scientists, or politicians, or even countries, can save the world.  Everyone’s responsibility — everyone’s — is to rise to a “world-centric” level of awareness and slow that train.  No, we won’t stop it, but we can slow it — each of us individually, all of us collectively, with every action we take, every word we utter.  And we can soften the coming train wreck. What’s your level of development? There are three basic levels of psychological development.  Where are you?:  <ol> <li>Egocentric — all I care about is me</li> <li>Ethnocentric — all I care about is my “tribe” (my family, my fellow Christians, my workplace, my race, my nation — these are layers of ethnocentric awareness)</li> <li>Worldcentric — I care about the entire world and all sentient beings.  </li> </ol> It is the playing field of your caring that drives your actions.  Wake up, everybody — we all need to think and feel world-centric, so we can act with the world in mind.  Listen to the two smartest Alberts of the 20th Century — Einstein and Schweitzer: “Until he extends his circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace." - Schweitzer. “Our task must be to … widen our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." - Einstein   To those who say, “I’m just one person,” I say this:  Imagine looking into the eyes of your great-great-grandchildren.  Think of your role in creating the world they’ve inherited, 75 years from now.  As you gaze into their eyes, will you say, “I’m sorry,” or “You’re welcome”?  We don’t just inherit the world from our parents.  We borrow it from our grandchildren.  To those who say, “It’s too late,” I say this: You can’t know that for certain.  And even if the world goes down in flames, you have a choice.  You can wait to say, “I told you so,” or you can go down trying — living your values and connecting with other beings on the planet.  There is no excuse not to do what you can to heal the world — it enriches you and enriches your fellow beings — regardless of what the world is coming to. To throw up our hands in despair is not only useless; it violates the highest calling of the human spirit — and like never before in history, this is the time to heed that calling.  Relevance to Bizniks Biznik articles are supposed to be “directly related to business” and “helpful to someone who is building and growing a business.”  How does my subject apply?  Quite simply, your success in the next 10 years depends on what happens in the world.  Those not awake to the realities of the world will not succeed in the long term.  Period.  The world is changing, and changing drastically.  Any business or leadership expert will tell you that a “systems” perspective — the ability to think from the bigger picture — is critical for any businessperson.  It’s about being strategic; your business planning is only as good as your systems-thinking capacity.  And the Earth is the ultimate “system.”   If you’re alive today, you have a role to play. It’s not a question of large role or small role; it’s your role.  I’m not asking you to give up all your worldly possessions and go feed the poor in Calcutta.  I’m asking you to ask yourself a simple question — once a month, every month: What am I willing to do — or stop doing — to make the world a better place? … and then act on it.  Even if it’s five minutes a day.  Do what you can.  But do.  It is far too late for denial, far too late for despair.  There is work to be done.  There is suffering to be eased.  Ask not for whom the bell tolls.  Your Mother is calling.  Pick up the phone.    Want to talk about all this with fellow Bizniks? I’m offering a <a href="../../../events/living-on-purpose">free workshop/dialogue</a> on December 3 on this topic.  I’m calling it “Living On Purpose.”  We’ll all express what troubles us about the world.  Then we’ll envision the world we’d like to live in.  And then — with no pressure or judgment — we’ll brainstorm what each of us is willing to do to help create it, one small step at a time.  2009-11-05T15:59:30Z

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2009-11-09T13:19:04Z

2009-11-09T19:20:00Z

How concerned are you for the world? It's too late for denial, too late for despair, too late not to pitch in. What's your role?