When you first hear or read the phrase impact mindfulness, what comes to mind?
Probably some sort of save the world kinda of a thing, no?
And it is that, but much more.
In this post I want to explain in more detail what the impact mindfulness worldview really means.
You see, the normal way of thinking about personal impact is to put the cart before the horse…
That the best way for me to have an impact on the world is to first focus in a self-interested way on my economic success…and from that firmly established and comfortable platform, I can have my greater impact.
Sounds perfectly legitimate…doesn’t it?
Here’s the problem with it.
If you’re Donald Trump and you make sure that a certain percentage of your success is funnelled towards some type of image-driven impact, a certain very small percentage…
It doesn’t detract from the fact that the other 90+% of your daily energy and focus is purely self-interested, group interested, consumption oriented and certainly not People and Planet interested.
Yea, you heard that right, 100%!
It must permeate every aspect of your life.
It must become who you are and what you’re about.
Because only when enough people do that will we begin to solve the problems we have in this world…
Problems that have been exponentially growing to uncontrollable proportions…
right before our very eyes in just the last generation.
Problems like religious fanatics that unleash genocidal rage on unbelievers, global warming that’s already wreaking havoc on the planet’s weather systems, a growing income gap that threatens social unrest around the globe, developed nations that are literally consuming the world out of existence, etc., etc…
We have a killer virus on the loose in Africa and it seems the worldwide response is to seal borders and leave those inside them to their fate…rather than find a real (but non-marketable) solution.
It must pervade every waking moment of your conscious existence.
That’s the “mindset” of impact mindfulness.
It’s not simply donating time or money to this or that worthy cause…even though doing so is a very good and impact worthy activity.
It’s adopting a mindset that sees the world and our place in it in terms of the three foundational pillars of Impact Mindfulness…
Prioritizing Impact Over Interest – that is, making sure our daily choices or activities, especially those consumptive and economically focused ones, are impact mindful…
Embracing the Concept of The Big US – that is, seeing the entire world and its inhabitants as fellow crew members on a planetary ship…the only ship we have…so that it becomes of utmost priority that we take care of it and each other…
Removing Impact Blinders – that is, being mindful of status quo ways of thinking that serve to trap us into doing “it” (life) in the same old destructive ways…you might even call that “wilful blindness.”
The world, our world, needs people who are thinking and acting according to the impact mindfulness worldview.
These are the people that can save us…
and they are YOU and ME.
Please join us at Revolutionary Misfit and be a part of the change!
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