I am back from a much needed holiday. It has been 3 years since I took more than a long weekend off. Too long. Interesting things happen when you get back from holidays. First, you realize that you really need to take more of them and secondly you realize that, at least if you are an social entrepreneur, that the goals you have set out before you are mad.
I have reconciled the first. We have booked our holidays for this year and we are going to stick to them.
I have reconciled the second (after a week back at work to think it through); I cannot think about the goals so much as just get busy doing the stuff needed to achieve them! Thinking about them too much makes me feel overwhelmed. I am sure this is feeling not uncommon to most in the sector, as we try to affect change on a large scale against lots of opposing forces. But, doing makes me feel good. (This does not preclude thinking per se, just a need to avoid protracted introspection which leads to madness).
Doing is a good thing, and it turns out that your happiness is tied to doing. Not getting. This NYTimes article* points out probably one of the top reasons I dropped out of the private sector corporate jungle and began anew in social enterprise….Doing things to help others makes you feel good and for longer and more intensively than getting something you want. Additionally, you may be thinking about how you will get to tomorrow and what it will be like only to find out it ain’t everything you thought. Stumbling on Happiness explores this concept scientifically.
Yeah, the "cause it makes ME feel good" approach may be somewhat less altruistic, when you think about it in a generic context, but think of it as a great compensation system for social entrepreneurs.
So go on. Do more good.
*NY Times article requires you to sign up to free trial to view, argh!
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