An Anti-Goal, Low-Pressure Message
It seems that as we start this new year, I'm getting the message to slow down, relax, and effort less:
In Tara McMullin's recent blog post
In Glennon Doyle's podcast sharing her new diagnosis
In this really beautiful Instagram account
and always in Silvana's newsletters
My business mentor Al likes to ask, "what's your most valuable resource as a business owner?", and the answer is always myself, including my time and energy.
These aren't just nice sentiments. They are liberation-oriented too.
Barbara J. Love talks about how building a liberatory consciousness is recognizing the humanness of each person. She also notes that we're all affected by oppressive systems (though some of us are rewarded by those systems), and that awareness of how we internalize them is one way we can take action.
My sense is that we can recognize our humanness and undo harmful systems partly by letting ourselves slow down, be at ease, be enough; and by building businesses that prioritize humans.
So as you set your intentions for this year (and as I set mine), I hope there is room for paced growth, a sense of ease, and an intentional prizing of ourselves and others.
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PS: One way I'm slowing down is by not running so many fundraising workshops. However, I still need organizations to donate to in order to reach my yearly goal of donating 10% of profit. Do you have a great grassroots organization you can recommend? I'd love to hear about it.