Many of us pine for meaning and purpose but feel that the only way to find it is to uproot ourselves from our careers and start anew–maybe in a non-profit or maybe as a social entrepreneur. In assuming we must take that approach, we put so many barriers between us an our meaningful lives. I’m an […]
Bella’s Path to Peace
My daughter Bella’s mother tends towards Christian practices and I tend toward Buddhist. So my daughter Bella has long had an internal dialog about the relationship between the two. She said to me: “Jesus and Buddha, they are brothers, right, Daddy?” It took me a moment to get over the fact that my then 8-year-old […]
Follow Your Calling in a Meaningless Job
Some of us worry about the world and yet feel stuck. We imagine that the only way to contribute is to completely change the core of our lives. We think, to follow our calling, we need a new career. And maybe we do. But sometimes a change is too hard or wrenching–for now. In the meantime, […]
Why Mentoring Makes You Happy and Saves the World
Here’s a question that may, at first glance, seem farfetched: Is it possible that by helping each other raise our children, by mentoring and co-parenting, we could actually be helping to save the planet from environmental degradation? First think on this: As we evolved, human beings never had sharp teeth to kill or fast legs […]
How to Change a Mind
Those of us pursuing meaning and purpose often find we need the good will of others and to do that we often have to change people’s minds: The best way to cause lasting change is to inspire it. Resist the temptation to argue. People rebel against force. Self-determination is a fundamental human need. So, to facilitate lasting change, […]
How to Become Yourself to Help The World
The good news about how disastrously troubled our world is is that it needs so many sorts of talents and passions in order to help it that there is a place for every one of us. In other words, if you care about world problems, you don’t have to fit yourself into someone else’s idea of how to […]
Taking Care of Yourself
Sometimes, when we finally get a taste of meaning and purpose, we pursue it without taking care of ourselves. But helping the world is not about denying yourself. How can you take care of the world if you are too tired or too hungry or too stressed or too depressed? If you can’t sustain yourself, […]
Be Stupid Enough to Try
People in my past have asked me if I was “too stupid to know that one person can’t make a difference in the world.” This is a meme in our culture–that cynics and skeptics are the smart ones. That the idealists and the optimists are too dumb to realize there is no point trying. Think […]