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In this video, psychologist Martin Seligman teaches the difference between the Pleasant Life, the Good Life, and the Meaningful Life. These are three very different ways to be happy. All are valid, but they’re very different.
As you start this weekend, watch the video and ask yourself the following questions:
What is my perfect day? Be specific. Work to incorporate at least one “perfect” activity into your weekend.
What am I grateful for right now?
What can I do to increase my engagement in my community?
Right now, at least 1.4 billion people on this planet live on less than $1.25 USD per day. (Source: World Bank) These are people that live in what is called “extreme poverty.” At that level of income, people don’t have access to adequate shelter, food, clean water, education, or health care.
Think about that for a second.
Being born on Earth means that you have a 20% chance of living a miserable, malnourished, hopeless existence. If you’re reading this post, you got very, very lucky in the lottery of life.
One of the most debilitating consequences of extreme poverty is the complete lack of resources available to the poor to improve their conditions in life. In most countries education is not free, so the very poor can’t participate. Health care is either expensive or not available at all, so diseases like malaria and pneumonia that can be easily treated in the developed world kill millions every year. And until very recently, the very poor had no access to credit to begin businesses and other income generating activities.
The good news is that we have answers to nearly all of these problems now. Do we have the will to implement them?
Grameen Bank Changes Our Perceptions
Several years ago, I heard about this crazy bank in Bangladesh that was lending out as little as $1 USD to extremely poor people. Even crazier, they weren’t requiring any collateral or contract for these loans. Crazier still, their default rate was lower than most banks in the U.S.
Conventional wisdom suggests that people are poor because they lack education, ambition, or the knowledge to produce enough income to help themselves. Lending money to a very poor person must surely be a losing proposition because they will never be able to repay it. Muhammad Yunus, formerly a U.S. trained economics professor, decided to challenge that conventional wisdom. He believed that with access to credit, the poor would create businesses that generate incomes for themselves and their families.
The bank that he founded, Grameen Bank, has been one of the biggest success stories in improving the lives of the poor in the last 25 years. It even won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Ninety-seven percent of all of its borrowers have been women, who traditionally lack access to credit and property ownership. The bank has even begun a micro-micro lending program of less than $1 for beggars (their word, not mine), encouraging them to begin selling very low cost items to supplement their begging income.
Why is this important?
Helping people increase their income from $1.25 USD to even the paltry sum of $2 USD creates tremendous opportunities for them and their families. At that level of income, people in the developing world can gain access to a basic but nutritious diet, very simple shelter, preventative medicine like mosquito nets, and most importantly, education for themselves and their children. Grameen not only lends money, it encourages its borrowers to make the 16 Decisions including deciding to educate their children with their increased income. As the children of Grameen borrowers gain education, they will be better able to support themselves and their families in the next generation. Grameen hopes that its lending programs will act like a pebble thrown into a pond, and the ripples will spread widely for many generations to come.
Microlending for Everyone
So, why should you care about a bank in Bangladesh?
Grameen’s bold actions provided an important proof of concept: The very poor want to help themselves. When given access to resources similar to what we can access in the West, they do help themselves. They start business, create jobs and income, help their families, and repay their debts.
Moreover, because Grameen has been so successful, many other microlending programs and banks have been started throughout the world. There are microlending banks, programs through the World Bank, foundation-funding microlending programs, and even microlending in poor communities in the U.S. Then, in 2005, two really smart people from Stanford founded a little organization called Kiva.
If you care at all about ending poverty, Kiva is just about the damn coolest thing since the polio vaccine.
Through the magic of the internet, and extensive partnerships throughout the developing world, you (yes YOU) can put as little as $25 into an account at Kiva’s site, look at all of the prospective borrowers, and loan them some money. After a while they repay your money and you can loan it to someone else. I’ve been on Kiva for about a year now and so far I’ve loaned money to a woman to buy inventory for her clothing making business and to a man to make repairs to his taxi. I’m continuing to recycle the money I’ve put into the system, which is great. Without any further investment from me, the people that I’m lending to are able to expand their businesses and create more opportunities for themselves and their families.
Do Something. Now!
You know what? No one wants to be poor. No one asks to be poor. No one deserves to be poor. NO ONE needs to live on less than $1.25 USD a day in this world. It’s ridiculous.
You can’t single-handedly end global poverty, but there are many, many things you can do to make one person’s life better, right now. Here are just a few ideas:
Sign up for Kiva. You can open an account with $25. Lend the money out, get it back, and lend it again. It’s the hardest working donation you’ll ever make. (While you’re there, consider donating $5 or $10 to Kiva for their operating expenses. Charities have to pay the electric bill, too!)
Read about the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. The United Nations has laid out ambitious goals to end or seriously reduce extreme poverty by 2015. The 2008 progress report shows that there has been progress, but there is much left undone.
Stand Up against poverty this weekend. In partnership with the U.N., millions of people are taking action this weekend to improve the lives of the very poor. Here is a map of events in the U.S. Find one and take action.
Donate to your favorite relief charity. If there isn’t a natural or man-made disaster to clean up from right now, there will be soon. Help your favorite relief charity be there providing much needed services during the next tsunami, earth quake, or fire.
Today is October 15, 2008. What have you done today to end poverty?
Note: This is Part 3 of a 7 part series. To read the entire series, visit the Changes That Stick category of this site.
Analysis paralysis is one of the most dangerous points on the path to creating lasting change. This is the place where all possible options seem equally valid and you have a hard time deciding what to do in the present moment. The dangers of getting caught in this loop are at their greatest during the Contemplation stage of change. The contemplation stage of change is the point at which an individual or organization intends to change within a relatively short time horizon, such as within the next six months. In this post you’ll learn why this stage is important and how you can move through it quickly to begin the more active stages of change.
In the precontemplation stage of change, a person either a) doesn’t think their situation is bad, or b) doesn’t think they are capable of changing it. The cost of change and the negatives of change outweigh positive benefits of that change. When a person has used emotion or an outside stimulus to move into the contemplation stage of change, they are able to see the pros and cons of change as more equal. They may even see change as more positive, but not know how they are going to get there.
For most individuals and organizations, the reaction to the contemplation stage of change is to engage in ambivalent thinking and doing a lot of planning to plan. If you’ve ever worked in an organization that is weighing the pros and cons of a merger, you know exactly what this is like. There are studies after studies, which produce conflicting results and create so much data that it is impossible to decide on a course of action.
Individuals can do the same thing. Let’s say I was thinking about changing my diet to be 100% vegan. I’ve passed through the precontemplation stage by learning about all of the health benefits I might gain by changing my diet, but I’m concerned that the change will limit my social life and require a lot more work to make sure that I’m getting all of the nutrition I need. If I were stuck in the contemplation stage of this change, I might buy 20 books and subscribe to 50 blogs about veganism. I may read a dozen or more conflicting medical studies about the benefits and dangers of the diet. I might research dietary supplements, raw food, superfoods and more.
In short, I could spend months or years doing everything but moving forward in making a change!
Helpful Procrastination
The contemplation stage can be very helpful and educational when used correctly. It can genuinely help you investigate a change, and it can also show you when a change isn’t right for you. There are certain situations where we might feel that we “should” make a change, but we don’t really want to. If you react to the idea of a change by procrastinating and doing endless “research,” this can be a good indication that you don’t desire a change.
The above example is one such situation. I’ve thought about becoming a vegan for many years for a variety of health, ethical and environmental reasons. However, after going through literally years of just the type of procrastination I described, I realized that I don’t really want to be 100% vegan. My endless procrastination was just my heart telling me what my head was too stupid to figure out. Instead of completely changing my diet, I’ve cut back on my lacto-ovo consumption considerably and found high quality, ethical sources of cheese and eggs. I’ve also accepted responsibility for the fact that my current diet means that my ecological footprint is a bit larger than a vegan’s and that I may still be contributing to the suffering of some animals, although that is greatly reduced. It isn’t a perfect solution, but it works for me, for now.
Unhelpful Procrastination
Procrastination becomes unhelpful and even dangerous when it comes not from a lack of desire to change, but a feeling of inability to change. This is the type of thinking that people fall into when a change seems so large and permanent that they just can’t imagine themselves completing it successfully. Many long time smokers and other types of addicts fall victim to this type of thinking. I’m sure we’ve all met someone with serious health condition who just keeps smoking away, and might even joke about how their addiction is going to kill them.
In companies, hearing phrases like “This is the way we’ve always done things,” or “We have a rich tradition of…X” are good indicators of endless procrastination on change. When this type of thinking becomes really ingrained, there is usually a recognition of the need for change, an intention to change, and maybe even the beginning of a plan to change, but no mindset for change. It’s as if a person is standing at the bottom of Mt. Everest, looking up and thinking, “I can’t climb this thing!”
The root of all of this resistance is fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of failure. Fear of success. Fear is an incredible motivator, but it can also be the world’s be demotivator. If your procrastination is stemming from fear or lack of belief in your ability to change, you’ll need some tools to overcome it.
How to Break Through Procrastination
When procrastination stems from a genuine lack of desire to change, the person or organization usually regresses to the precontemplation stage. If a change is absolutely needed, the strategies outlined in that post can help advance the process back to Contemplation. When procrastination comes from a lack of belief in the ability to change, there are many ways of turning Mt. Everest into a molehill.
Break the change into small pieces. Even if you need to completely restructure a Fortune 500 company, there are ways to break the process down into smaller pieces. Use a technique like mindmapping to start with a large change and break it down into its smallest components. For example, “restructuring” might mean upgrading your Human Resources software, implementing remote work arrangements, or selling off a division. Choose the most critical piece of this project and begin to work on it. The rest of the changes can come later.
It doesn’t have to be forever. We tend to think that we have to make a permanent change right from the beginning. Even though this series is titled Changes That Stick, I don’t think it’s realistic that every change we make will be permanent. Start by trying to change for a weekend or a month. Or think about ways to change gradually. Can you cut back on junk food a little bit at a time, replacing an unhealthy snack with some fruit or nuts? Can you give up your after lunch cigarette right now and work on the rest later? Choose a small task that can give you a quick victory.
Work with your support system. If you think a change is going to be especially difficult, be sure to involve as many support people as needed. Ask your friends to help you watch your diet, or be available for late night phone calls. Call in the consultants and coaches when you need them. If you are feeling weak and unable to change, you need the support of anyone you think can help.
Act before you can think. If you are really prone to analysis paralysis, it may be best to just skip over Contemplation as quickly as possible. The second you think, “I should change my diet,” throw away all your junk food, go to the store, and buy 3 pounds of salad mix. If you see that you need new relationship management software, put an action oriented person on the task and let it go. Defend against your worst instincts by outrunning your own thoughts.
The contemplation stage is a necessary, but perilous step on the path to lasting change. The key to this stage is to stay in it just long enough to create the momentum needed to move on to the next stage, preparation, but not a second longer! In the next part of this series, we’ll explore Preparation and Planning to Act.
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This weekend I went on a media fast. I didn’t watch the news, read the paper, or talk about current events. Instead, I connected with some good friends that I haven’t seen in a while.
Predictably, this was much more fun than the news, so what do I do going forward?
1) No more news at least until after the election. I have all of the information I need to cast my votes at this point.
2) Find other ways to be engaged in my community. Doing is so much more important than watching.
3) (I thought of this one after I finished the recording.) Schedule more time to get out and connect with real people. I often reserve the weekends for “rest” but this isn’t very satisfying. I need to find ways to reach out more and connect in person, not on the ‘net.
What do all of you think about this? Do you think it’s irresponsible to stop paying attention to the news this close to an election? Do you find it helpful to watch CNBC? Feel free to reply to this Utter, or comment at http://blog.neverthesamerivertwice.com/.
Has all of the negative political rhetoric and fear mongering about the economy stressed you out? I’m right there with you on that one.
This weekend I’m turning off the TV, the radio and anything else that will elevate my anxiety levels. I’m going to connect with some old friends and de-stress. I’ll let you know on Monday how it went.
