Change the World: Help Others Pursue the Passion

June 6, 2007 by Liz

Hey, Brett, How Can We Change the World?

One young man graduated college a year ago. He interviewed and found a job in a corporation. He worked one year in which he came to understand that his passion wasn’t waiting at the desk he occupied every day. This young man looked back on his leaving college interviews.

In those interview rooms, the young man remembered the other recent grads he saw waiting their turn. He realized that they — like himself — had been taking the “natural next step” on a career path. He had a conversation with two friends who agreed that something was wrong for people to be starting their careers that way.

The young man’s name is Brett. Brett believes people leaving college should be pursuing their passion not a job . . . Brett sees that as his way to change the world in a positive way.

Pursue the Passion

Guest Writer: Brett Farmiloe

This post has nothing to do with the lessons taught by Guy Kawasaki. There will be no Babyface lyrics in this article. ItÃ¢â¬â¢s about how I, Brett Farmiloe, a recent college grad and your latest corporate dropout, want to do something important, something that matters.

Will you help me change the world in a positive way?

Let me clarify what changing the world means to me. I don’t have the skills to find an end to world hunger, to move nations toward world peace, or to fight for freedom. Yet I have experience and skills that can make a significant difference. My idea of changing the world is tapping into a powerful, yet largely ignored natural resource — passion — the passion of people who do what they love.

The greatest ideas, effort, and productivity come from people who are propelled by passion. The world certainly needs more of these.

Yet the model we’re living is not designed to produce passion. It leads us down well-traveled career paths of 8 to 6 jobs that promise bonuses, promotions, and job stability. The model does not place importance on an individual’s love has for the work, but on the quantifiable measurements an individual brings.

IÃ¢â¬â¢m not buying that model.

One month ago, I left a corporate accounting position to continue a project I started in school. The project, Pursue the Passion, challenges individuals to find their life passion. The project began when two friends and I interviewed professionals about their career paths in hopes that we would find our own passion.

What happened along our journey is that I didn’t discover a passion. I developed many. I also found that an overwhelming majority of people have a passion. They just donÃ¢â¬â¢t know how or where to start making it the center of their life. Collectively, these reasons have led me to leave the security of a cubicle, to adopt a new lifestyle, and to pursue my passion with all I am.

Here’s how that looks.

In one month, my two friends and I will be couch surfing America to interview 200 people who love their work. We are traveling 14,000 miles in 90 days to uncover career paths people have paved. We’ll be talking, listening, and taking notes and videotaping so others can benefit from the interviews — the wisdom of the people we meet, their triumphs, the mistakes they share, and their lessons learned.

Would you help us make that tour the most it can be?

We need exceptional people to talk to. We need couches to crash on. We need your input on what prevents people from pursuing their passion and what motivates them to take the leap. We want to have lunch with you. We need your advice. We want to spread the message of our tour throughout this great nation, so that Americans will begin to take baby steps towards positive change.

Would you take a moment to leave a comment with any advice or help you might have to offer us? We’d be grateful. Let us know you are passionate too!

Brett Farmiloe, Pursue the Passion.

Thank you, Brett, for living your message. We’re a passionate group here.

Help is on the way.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Change the World: One World-Sized Idea

June 4, 2007 by Liz

Are We Afraid We Would Make a Difference?

A lucky part of being who and where I am is that I get have conversations about people’s passions and dreams for the future. I hear their heads describing their skills and talents. I hear their hearts explaining how they long to follow their calling.

The wish is always there, often unspoken — sometimes from fear of it, sometimes from a lack of ownership.

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a young man. He had some idea of his future, but not yet a whole one. He asked my experience. I said is that, if he were going to make one mistake, I suspected that he would not think big enough.

“Not think big enough,” he pondered that phrase.

“Yes, I don’t think I’ve heard anyone think too big for years, maybe forever.”
He asked for more. I elaborated in this way.

We make our ideas smaller by thinking we weren’t meant to do something. Other folks were meant to change things. We were meant to live with them. Why do we argue for that? Isn’t the opposite an equally valid argument?

Why do we shy away from what we long to be doing?

Are we afraid that we actually could make a difference?

Nelson Mandela knows.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Ghandhi
Mother Teresa
Martin Luther King

They were each one person with a refusal to follow their fear.

Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.

One person can change the world with belief in a world-sized idea.

This is not talk. I truly do . . . plan . . .. to . . . Change the World.

With capital letters.

Why not me? Why not you? Why not all of us?

We can change the world — just like that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Mandela’s speech was written by Marianne Williamson.

The Art of Giving a Gift to Someone You Know

June 3, 2007 by Liz

giving gifts.

I’ve been thinking about how some folks think they are other-centered, really believe they are, when they don’t quite know how to be. It shows when they buy gifts for people they care about. The gifts don’t always work out.

I have an agreement with my closest friends about giving gifts. When we see something that so perfectly suits the other we buy it and it send it no matter when. When a birthday comes and we haven’t found it, then we don’t. We like it a lot just like that.

Giving with head and heart has a full-on view of the person who will receive it.

Why do we sometimes give gifts those we love without looking?

Companies do it. Parents do it. Husbands, and wives, and lovers do it. Children do it too. Though young children do it least.

I know you know what I mean. It’s that episode of the TV show Frazier in which they try to buy Frazier’s dad a new chair. He loves that chair duct tape and all. What sort of gift separates a guy from something he loves? Who is the gift really for?

It’s the cross pen I got one year for a gift from someone who knew me for over a decade. It was engraved with the wrong initials. It wasn’t the engraver’s mistake.

It’s the shirt, or the tie, or the dress that you would never wear — that so obviously doesn’t reflect who you are.

It’s sad, because often the receiver had no request, no need, and now sees a face filled with anticipation of a joyous response and must blend gratitude with honesty.

The art of giving a gift is accomplished so easily. I don’t understand how we miss this.

A friend said to me recently, “I knew exactly what to buy, because I know her, because I love her.” His gift for her was all about her.

That is the art of giving an unconditional gift.

We have so many gifts to share and so many ways to connect.

A gift can be a kind word, a smile, and hand on a shoulder that says, “I know you. I see you. I am aware you exist.” It’s something that shows I heard you, when you didn’t know I was listening.

How do you recognize a gift from someone who knows you?

–ME “Liz’ Strauss

Fair and Just â Do They Mean the Same Thing?

June 2, 2007 by Liz

We Didn’t Do that for Her Brother

My father retold this story shortly after my college graduation party. . . .

When I graduated from college, my dad suggested that my parents have a party. He wanted to take his best friends from the saloon out to dinner to celebrate with us. My mom pointed out that they didn’t do that when my oldest brother graduated from college 9 years before. My dad said his reply was, “When we first got married, we could only afford hamburger. Does that mean we shouldn’t eat steak now?”

Throughout my life, this was a recurring theme. My mother believed in giving the same. My father believed in adjusting for changing circumstances.

I grew to think of one as fair and one as just — both as noble and loving.

What do you think? Are fair and just the same thing?

My husband says this story is about something else entirely. See my comment.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Behind every successful business is an outstanding manager –The Perfect Virtual Manager.

A Walk in the Zen Moonlight

June 1, 2007 by Liz

The Moon and the Lake in My Mind

In a week of too many things to do, it’s easy to get lost. It’s even easier not to want to be found. I see lots of folks feeling like that. Not me, no never, never me. Wouldn’t cross my mind. Wouldn’t happen like that.

I don’t get pulled. I don’t get stretched. I can handle the rush. I can handle the push. What else is strength of purpose about? It’s tied up in my need to show up, to find out, to be alive.

Does living mean we need to be strong, noble, and inspired every minute? Sometimes I do my work and think What do I do next? What do I expect of myself?

Then when I’m lucky, I hear music playing in my head. It’s an original melody. I know its movements by now. It’s a full orchestra — brilliant and breathtaking. It also means I’ll soon be going on a Zen walk.

I mentally grab my jacket. I put my wallet and keys in my jeans. It’s a quick good-bye. “Hey, I’m going outside. . . . Yeah, I know it’s raining. That’s okay, I’ve been wet before.”

I’ve no destination beyond the elevator going down. Soon enough, I’m out the glass front doors.

I walk south three city blocks. Three people jog by me on the sidewalk. Two more stroll. An old lady in a walker chair sits in the doorway of a stately building waiting for a ride, maybe her son, to pick her up. There’s a 30-something guy with a shaved head walking his big black dog with the caramel eyes. Lots of cars pass on Lakeshore Drive.

A neighborhood is where I live. I cross under the drive and come out by the lake. All civilization is left behind. Vast space, water and sky refresh my eyes. What a relief.

Sometimes I only need to change what I see.

I lay down my stress and look up at the sky.

The Zen moon in my mind enhances the symphony playing there.

Some folks say they can tell when I write at night. I bet they can.

People get more emotional when the sun has moved on.

I don’t have research to prove that it’s a fact of life.

I don’t need proof.

I have the Zen moon shining in the night sky.

Boomers, GenY, and Changing the World

May 31, 2007 by Liz

A Circle of Our Selves

Recently in his discussion of authenticity, Steve Roessler shared the work of Peter Vajda. One sentence of Dr. Vajda’s echoes to my past.

The kicker for me is that everyone is born authentic.

We used to talk about that idea constantly when I was in college. We’d say that babies were born high on life, then the world slowly knocks it out of them.

Years later as the mom of a son, who was about to go to college himself, I was part of a conversation about the other end of life — how some people get crankier as they get old and others get more generous. I theorized that cranky, old people were trying to defend their right to be on the planet. A wise friend suggested that the answer was simpler — that

as people get old they become more of what they are.

Sounds like a circle doesn’t it? From authentic to authentic — it’s a circle of our selves.

Boomers, GenY, and Changing the World

I’ve read a lot and heard even more about about GenY and Boomers and how far apart we are. They say it’s a problem in the workplace that GenY employees want to IM their Boomer bosses. Magazine and newstalk is of a technology/relationship gap that exists.

The first thing people notice are differences. That doesn’t mean that’s all we’ve got.

When I look at Boomers and GenY I don’t see such a great divide. If we look at who we are below the surface, the picture changes to how much we have in common.

Boomers

I’m a Boomer. During the years that I was at my university, the organized system of fraternities and sororities was at an all time low for membership. Don’t go Greek. Go Freak! was a popular saying. Timothy Leary told us to trust no one over 30. We believed him. The Moody Blues enshrined him in a song. I still can sing it. Most Boomers still know Boomer anthems like that.

We wore jeans that looked just like the ones I see now — dirty, with holes and embroidery — my mom kept asking me to leave them home so she could “wash them” for me. We knew we were going to have an impact on the world as a group. We also invented the idea that our lives should have a soundtrack, and it was deep in our college years that the LOVE sculpture went up in Love Park in Philadelphia.

GenY

My son is GenY. They call him an Echo Boomer because his generation is the largest since the Boomers were born. Wikipedia points out the characteristics that they share.

These individuals typically share moral qualities with their grandparents (usually the G.I. or Greatest Generation). Some of these include the importance of hard work, dedication, and being an effective team member. Most political views of Echo Boomers are shared with their parents (Baby Boomers). This is due to similar presidential tension and the largely opposed war in Iraq. Many of the Echo Boomers have a closer relationship with their Baby Boomer parents and enjoy similar tastes in music and styles. It should be noted that while Echo Boomers are not as rebellious as their parents, they are not shy when it comes to speaking their minds.

When it comes to dreams, no generation seems to be more like the Boomers than this one that’s the largest generation since the Boomers descended on the planet.

The shared dreams are more than the differences. I’m not the only one who thinks so. Other folks have seen it too.

It’s true that Generation Y workers are different — but only to a degree, and not in as many ways as people think.

I recently conducted research that examines the motivations of about 3,500 people. It shows that twentysomethings are no more likely to express lifestyle concerns than workers in their 40s and 50s. In every age group, about the same number of people cite work/life balance as one of their key work motivators.

Though they are separated by age and experience, there’s not much difference today between boomers’ and Gen Y-ers’ outlooks on work/life. —Barbara Moses, Ph.D, is an international speaker, work/life expert, and author

So, the problem is one of communication, not deep-seated motivation. It’s not about differences at work. It’s about working together to make a difference in the world.

As Boomers get back to dreaming again, and GenY gets on to making things happen, isn’t there something important that we’re missing, if we don’t connect? Think of it, the two largest generations with our heads and hearts in the same place. That’s electric. That’s power. Better yet, it’s hope for the future.

What is the first little thing we might do?

We don’t have to stop at talking about changing the world.
We could actually do it.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.

Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.