You're not greedy, are you?

You’re not greedy, are you?

Of course you’re not greedy. You’ve devoted yourself to making the world more sustainable! You are probably working hard to find ways to consume less, reuse and recycle more, spend your money on experiences rather than things. That’s in your personal life. What about in your work?

You might say you are also not greedy at work, especially if you’ve chosen to work for a non-profit. But what are your goals at work? Do you have KPIs?  Do they directly reflect the mission of the organization? Many of us working as sustainability advocates spend our time and energy on things like fundraising, attracting members, and otherwise racking up statistics that look good in the annual report or on your resume. We believe that to be successful, we have to play the game and play it to win. We may have KPIs, but our aspirational goal is infinity — the more the better. Ideally, it would come easy, too. Money would come flowing in with very little effort. It’s all good because it’s for a good cause, right? 

Greed is one of the elements of the Conventional Paradigm. Greed is wanting more — usually much more — than you need, have earned, or deserve. It is wishing to get more than fair value, more than you’re willing to give. It is wanting something for nothing. In business, the goal is for revenue to exceed costs — to get more value than you’ve created. The goal is to earn as much money as possible, with no upper limit. In business, greed is a given.

Most organizations, including those working in sustainability, have come to believe that to be successful they need to operate like a business. They have to act as though they are greedy. Greed is an imperative in a world that is characterized by scarcity, competition, resistance, and fear. They subscribe to the Conventional Paradigm, even though it is that paradigm that caused the problems they are trying to solve. 

We cannot achieve our sustainability goals, cannot co-create a world where any and all can flourish, if we follow the Conventional Paradigm. If we want to re-align ourselves with Nature and Nature’s Principles, we must also re-align ourselves with Nature’s Paradigm. 

The good news is that we already know and love being in our Nature’s Paradigm. It’s our worldview when we’re immersed in Nature, immersed in creative activities, immersed in love. And, interestingly, the conventional world also values the Natural Paradigm, but just doesn’t recognize it as such. These are the times when a person hits flow at work and gets amazing things done. It’s when a team is energized and synergized and comes up with incredibly creative ideas and solutions. It’s the culture that eats strategy for lunch. 

Does this resonate with you? If you’d like to explore this further, I invite you to download the [free] Tiny Transformation Workbook which will give you tiny peeks into the “Conventional Paradigm” and the “Natural Paradigm”, and then a tiny experience of intentionally living from your Natural Paradigm.