Time for a Change?

First Understand Your Mission, Then Change Your Approach

So, maybe it’s time to make a change.  Things in your life are probably some version of tolerable, but you have an nagging belief that you could be or want to be doing more.  You have a strong need to exert your efforts toward some positive change in the world, coupled with annoying uncertainty on how to proceed.  Plus, you still need money.  Ugh.  Remember that our society inculcates insecurity, so learn to chill out.  But, you are probably right, there is a mission out there calling you. 

While you mull this over, a good first step whenever stuck is to clarify the problem you are trying to solve.  In this case, disentangle your mission, WHAT you are trying to achieve, from your approach, HOW you can achieve it.  Let’s dig deeper.  

Your Mission

Your mission is the answer to the question “What do you want MORE or LESS of, in the world, NOW and in the FUTURE?”  Many things may qualify; the world feels overwhelmingly broken these days, but it is best if you choose something with which you have a deep emotional connection which will fuel you on your mission.  Choosing one mission is necessary because focus is a prerequisite for success.  

First, think about the answer to this question “What do you want MORE or Less of, in the world, NOW and in the FUTURE?” and start writing down contenders. Here are some examples: 

“We ought to be able to have a great time taking great care of patients.” 

“No child should go hungry.”

“Voting ought to be easy and reliable.”

If your mission feels self-oriented but you don’t want it to be, such as, “I want MORE money NOW and in the FUTURE,” try appending a “so that” to the end of your sentence.  Keep adding “so that’s” until you drive to the core of what you really want. 

Pay attention to the form of your answer and your feelings as you think about your mission.  Do you want MORE of a good thing or LESS of a bad one?  Do you want it NOW, aspire for the future, or both? You might find a few key emotions jump to the surface: anger, anxiety, enthusiasm and hope, or what I like to call mission fuel.  

Let’s summarize that in a handy 2x2 table.

Each of these emotions, connected to the form of your mission, will get you moving, help you recognize when you need a change, recruit others and sustain you through the constant obstacles that will tempt you to quit.  

One emotion may dominate you right now, but you will need multiple fuels on your journey.  The way in which you frame your mission (less/more, now/later) will generate the corresponding emotion.  Therefore, if you are burned out on one of your emotions, change the frame of your mission.  Instead of focusing on what you want less of, generating anger, focus on what you want more of to generate enthusiasm.  Unfortunately the universe is not organized in polar opposites, so this is not always an easy question to answer.  That’s part of the work of the mission!

Let’s start with the negative emotions: anger & anxiety. These emotions are triggered when you want to see LESS of something in the world.  These negative emotions are powerful and motivating.  Anger will help get you moving, recruit others and help you change course when needed.  Anger often provokes action.  Obviously this can be useful to get something going or react to change.  Too much anger can be overwhelming and may cause you to change course when no change is warranted.  The most subtle limitation on anger is that it isn’t generative, and cannot help you solve complex problems.  

Anxiety is a feeling about the future and can cause inaction.  You are worried something might happen that you don’t want to happen.  This is the genesis of all defensive or preparatory missions.  You should see me pack for a ski trip! But the fear can actually be sustaining,  If the fear about the future outweighs the momentary pain of the mission, then you will continue.  Like anger, anxiety can be exhausting.  It does actually help with generating ideas (solutions to the fears), but will ultimately wipe you out over time. 

The positive emotions: enthusiasm and hope, are equally important.  The advantage here is that these fuels lead you toward what you do want (instead of away from what you don’t).  They have the advantage of specificity, achievability and generativity.  

Enthusiasm, a desire to see more of something in the world, will also get you moving.  It may help you recruit others, offers a generative solution toward which you move, and the mission may grow upon itself.  But enthusiasm can be fleeting, unfocused and border on annoying.  

Finally there is hope, perhaps the strongest of the missions.  However, being future oriented does tend to lead to inaction. 

The goal then is to think of your mission across all of the fears. Let your anger get you moving, your enthusiasm recruit others, your anxiety to help you prepare, and your hope sustain you all through the journey.  Recognize when you are leaning too heavily on a particular fuel and burning it out.  To change fuels, change the form of your mission, which is itself work! Understand that creating is always more complex than destroying, and ultimately, just don’t quit.

So, how do you actually approach your mission?

Special thanks to Auriell Towner for her help in getting this over the line!