Yesterday night I met a friend at the bar. He’s a very idealistic and active guy in his 50’s. When I asked him how he’s doing, he told me that his health is fine, but that he doesn’t now what he’s here for. And he talked about (inter-)national politics, and about all that goes wrong there.
So I’m writing about meaning again. Finding your meaning in life doesn’t mean, that you need to have a top position in international politics of business in order to achieve something. On the contrary, the power of people in top positions is often hugely overestimated. They are chained by the political and cultural context, often even more than the rest of us are.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. It’s the only thing that ever has.” (Margaret Mead)
A great example for this is a citizens action from 2008 in Estonia: Let’s Do It. See for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5GryIDl0qY
For all of us it’s important to find our meaning, no matter how small it seems. Here the other four aspects of centered leadership help us not to get frustrated:
– framing, to keep believing that you can make a difference
– networking, to find supporters
– engaging, to go for it
– energy, to be able to keep going for it.
Our conversation was disrupted last night. Today I’ll write an e-mail to him, about the great things he does, and about how the five aspects of centered leadership can help him.