From Scarcity to Abundance (Really.)
One of the most hopeful parts of envisioning a bright future is recognizing that everyone has an inherent ability to author creative, meaningful, and positive change. Much to our detriment, our culture and education systems often teach us to be just the opposite—participants in a system that isn’t serving them.
According to the law of the (transactional, zero-sum) jungle, we can only thrive at the expense of others. At 1o1.org, we are proposing a mindset shift that not only takes us out of this one-up, one-down, scarcity-based mentality but also one that illuminates and builds upon our personal power and agency. One of the most effective ways to do this is by replacing hierarchies and networks with constellations and webs.
But to get there, we must start from the roots: an open, forward-thinking mindset and language.
Open, forward-thinking mindset & languages
Picture a world where every changemaker and entrepreneur can access the resources and skills needed to materialize and replicate their ideas globally. This would transform how we approach new initiatives and solutions and relate to ourselves, one another, and the world. This mindset shift has the potential to refocus our efforts and fuel futures that are already in motion but disproportionately resourced in comparison to investments that diminish humanity’s overall quality of life.
To get there, we first equip our children and youth with a mindset supporting and encouraging positive social change. As stated by Bill Drayton in the Harvard Business Review, this starts with “empathy, teamwork, leadership, and change-making.” On an institutional level, this looks like creating systems that support and encourage our younger generations’ revolutionary and visionary ideas. Instead of training them to continue reproducing the same (ineffective) yields of the system that has not served us for centuries, we must inspire and feed their innate hunger for a new world through training and resources.
Let’s explore a real-world example of this in action.
From Non- or For-Profit to a Connection-, Purpose-, & Outcome-Orientation
At best, around 1% of the workforce actively pursues their vocation or works their ideal, let alone dream job. To spend 40+ hours a week (about ¼ of our time here on earth) doing (detrimental) work that doesn’t fulfill us on a deep level is a catastrophe for our well-being and collective joy. Part of what’s holding us back from normalizing meaningful work that contributes to our wellbeing is the language we use for it.
Consider how often you describe or introduce yourself by stating what you are not. Aside from feeling counter-intuitive, it asserts whatever you are not as the “norm” (i.e., when we say we are non-binary, it asserts binary as the “norm”). Ironically, by introducing or naming something as “non-” or “anti-,” we are reinforcing the binary thinking that is the root of so much global and human suffering (i.e., “good” vs. “evil,” “white” vs. “black,” “us,” vs. “them”). By switching from “non-profit” to “outcome-oriented,” we create new realities where positive social change is the norm.
So how can we work to achieve this mindset shift toward a place where the majority of us are working to advance human life?
A Reliable, Transformative, Socratic Method for Curious Inquiry and Learning
Socratic inquiry encourages us to identify and get familiar with the underlying beliefs driving our prior actions. From there, we start peeling back these layers of conditioning and shed them to create new futures. Shedding these layers empowers changemakers to uncover their most inspired and radical selves.
As we tap into this innate empathy and desire for social good, the need for new systems becomes more apparent. We liberate ourselves from past stories and make space for more expansive and generative modes of being, prioritizing partnership and collaboration over networks and building constellations in place of hierarchies.
Despite what we have been taught or believe about the nature of the world, something within tells us that we all have the potential to be a changemaker. Join us in making these micro and macro shifts from scarcity to abundance to create a world where everyone thrives.
Part of the purpose of 1o1.org is to provide the tools to meet y/our inner changemaker, embrace curiosity, and envision the outcome-oriented systems waiting to be discovered.
P.S. As with most (good) ideas, this post has many authors; it is (perhaps perpetually) in Beta; please participate in shaping and improving its shared value; feel free to post your thoughts, improvements, concerns, and suggested edits to v 0.1 HERE
