Answering a slightly awkward personal question about why I do this
I recently got a question which put me on the back foot, which was a little awkward.
In my work as a career coach I spend a lot of time encouraging mid-career professionals to find their courage when making a transition into sustainability and climate related work.
We often start with “WHY”. (Yes, yes, thank you Simon Sinek) There a bunch of exercises to help focus down on this and the deeper the personal reason that can be surfaced, the clearer the way forward becomes. An absolute classic tool is to use ‘The Five Whys’
“Yes but why, and why is that, uh huh and why might that be true” etc (It is not an imaginative tool title)
Halfway through one of these conversations my client asked me what my ‘why’ was.
I have often fallen back on a slightly glib answer, that “I want to do more than take my own coffee cup to the cafe, in the face of a world on fire”. That usually elicits a knowing smile and we move on. But that wasn’t going to be enough this time.
On reflection the reality is that my “why” comes from two places, both of which become grandiose in the retelling, so bear with me.
1)A profound connection to the places and people most likely to be impacted by climate crisis
I have spent a cumulative four years undertaking slow overland travel across six continents. This experience dissolves the sense of distance, the sense of an us and them, and the comfortable ignorance that allows many in the Global North to ignore what is happening to ‘others, elsewhere’. It also gave me a profound and humbling appreciation for the wonder of the natural world and its incredible biodiversity, something worth fighting for, for protecting.
2)Helping others escape the anxiety of Thoreau’s “Quiet Desperation”.
Across twenty years of corporate “success” I experienced two mental breakdowns, made myself sick with stress and picked up an unhealthy drinking habit. What is crazy to me now is that: because this was the norm, it didn’t seem crazy then. Lots of my colleagues were going through the same. The “Up or out” career approach so often ended in “out” that we took it for granted that this was somehow collateral damage. The anxiety of manufactured urgency, to meet deadlines that were arbitrary, for projects that served no purpose beyond selling more things was killing us, and we either didn’t see it or refused to acknowledge it.
I originally started out in career advisory helping people bridge the gap between manager and leader in large corporates. Ultimately though I found that most of the time they simply didn’t want to work where they were but didn’t know how to leave or what else to do.
So now I know my why. The reason I help mid career professionals find their niche and make their impact is because it is the biggest lever I can pull to make a difference IN the world and FOR the individual.
Told you it would sound grandiose
So, if you are unhappy in your work, feel like you might have a few death bed regrets about what are doing with your life, then let’s talk. It isn’t always easy, it can feel like quitting, but trust me, your future self will be so thankful.
