When you first hear or read the phrase impact mindfulness, what comes to mind?
Probably some sort of save the world kinda of a thing, no?
And it is that, but much more.
In this impact mindfulness mindset primer I want to explain a little about what this worldview really means. If you want to delve deeper, there are other eBooks, as well as my blog, Revolutionary Misfit.
You see, the normal way of thinking about personal impact is to put the cart before the horse…to think in terms of impact as a by-product, rather than the end game.
It’s more typical to think that the best way for me to have an impact on the world is to focus first in a self-interested way on my success. And then from that firmly established and comfortable platform, I can have my greater impact on the world outside of me.
Sounds perfectly legitimate, doesn’t it?
Here’s the problem with it.
Even if you’re Donald Trump and you make sure that a certain percentage of your success is funneled towards some type of image-driven, brand-focused, impact…a certain very small percentage…
It doesn’t detract from the fact that the other 90+% of your daily energy and focus is purely self-interested, group interested, consumption oriented and certainly not People and Planet interested.
It must permeate every aspect of your life.
It must become who you are and what you’re about.
Because only when enough people do that will we begin to solve the problems we have in this world…
Problems that have been exponentially growing to uncontrollable proportions right before our very eyes in just the last generation.
Problems like religious fanatics unleashing genocidal rage on unbelievers, global warming that’s already wreaking havoc on the planet’s weather systems, a growing income gap that threatens social unrest around the globe, developed nations that are literally consuming the world out of existence, etc., etc…
Lately the trend seems to be one of sealing borders and leaving those outside of them to their fate, rather than finding real solutions.
It must pervade every waking moment of your conscious existence.
That’s the “mindset” or “worldview” of impact mindfulness.
It’s not simply donating time or money to this or that worthy cause, even though doing so is a very good and certainly an impact worthy activity.
It’s adopting a mindset that sees the world and our place in it in terms of the three foundational pillars of Impact Mindfulness…
Prioritizing Impact Over Interest – making sure our daily choices or activities, especially those consumptive and economically focused ones, are impact mindful…
Embracing the Concept of The Big US – seeing the entire world and its inhabitants as fellow crew members on a planetary ship…the only ship we have…so that it becomes of utmost priority that we take care of it and each other…
Removing Impact Blinders – being mindful to eliminate status quo ways of thinking that serve to trap us into doing “it” (life) in the same old destructive ways…
The world, our world, needs people who are thinking and acting according to this impact mindfulness worldview. And that is true both within the borders of one’s birth, as well as outside of them. In fact, this whole eBook makes the point that expats, those who’ve chosen to live outside of the borders of their birth, have an even greater opportunity for making world-changing impacts.
The only heroes out there to save us are those of us willing to rise up and make an impact.
Hopefully this little book will inspire you to do no less.
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