Changemaker Wellbeing - It’s time to see things as they really are!

How would you rate your wellbeing? 

​As someone with a social mission, your ‘emotional contract’ with your work motivates you to take one more step each day.

However, because your life’s purpose is deeply personal, it can be hard to get started and expose your ideas to criticism; and because you want to make extraordinary impact, there are times when you may become inert and disheartened by the scale of the task around you.

Conversely, we may also take everything on, allowing ourselves to get distracted from our real goals so that we can stay safe, even if it’s in safe discomfort.

Another tried and tested version of not looking after our wellbeing, is to take everything on and ‘burn out’ as we strive to make the most impact that we can. 

You might be brilliant at recognising other people’s capacity to make social change happen but struggle to recognise your own extraordinary contribution each day, as you use your strengths and skills to take action in ways that are meaningful to you.

Being a resilient, happy agent of change

Being a resilient agent of change, is not about being ‘tough’ and putting up with things that make you unhappy. Instead, resilience is about living from a place of knowing who you are, celebrating your unique blend of self and drawing on all of this so that you can adapt to and overcome challenges.

Resilience is a fundamental part of your wellbeing. It is your core of creativity, joy, adaptability and connection to the world.

To quote Diane Coutu:

“Resilient people…possess three characteristics: a staunch acceptance of reality; a deep belief, often buttressed by strongly held values, that life is meaningful; and an uncanny ability to improvise.” How Resilience Works, Diane L Coutu. Harvard Business Review, May 2002 

What are you putting up with that makes you unhappy?

Are you choosing overload? Are you overwhelmed and disheartened?

All of these things get in the way of you achieving your purpose - to make change happen!

In today's uncertain world, more than ever, you need to care for your wellbeing so that you can keep caring for others too. You need to build that connection to your resilience.

Start your wellbeing journey by seeing things as they really are

When you look at the blueprint of your everyday life, without judgement or self-policing, what is making you happy and fulfilled and what is getting in the way of your wellbeing?

The table below might seem trivial (you can download it as a PDF here), but if you have to think hard for more than a minute or two, about responses to the statements then press the pause button.

Ask yourself why you're struggling to respond. If you think, "I'm too busy to think about it right now," then that is an answer in itself - how separate are you from the things that make you happy that responses don't pour out of you.

If you are truly flourishing as you are, then use your responses as a way of celebrating. We need to celebrate happiness more often!

If your responses opened up a need to be more connected to your wellbeing, then get in touch. If you find yourself saying, “I should be happy but…”, then get in touch. If you need some help with decisions you know that you need to make, then get in touch.

We can find your way forward together with 1-1 coaching online or face-to-face in Geneva or the Swiss mountains.

Start with an email to elaine@flowinaction.org 

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