I Went to the Woods and Discovered the Secret to Changing the World
This weekend I literally escaped the city to go to a ‘micro-festival for inspiring career change’. It was organised by Escape the City who are building a community of career changers. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have been a part of it since I joined a band of founding members at the launch of their Escape School in August 2014. More than anything, this community is the reason that I am making my dreams of a 21st century career a reality. Over the past year I have met so many inspiring and exciting people from all walks of life. Initially most of us were drawn to the Escape community because we didn’t like our jobs. Although on the surface we might have been successful, we couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that it wasn’t right, that there must be something more. Questioning our work has led us to question how we choose to live and, while our backgrounds and our dreams are hugely diverse, we are united in our quest to live a life filled with purpose.
So this weekend 200 of us — seasoned Escapees, new recruits and those curious to find out more — gathered in the stunning Kent countryside to share stories and to be inspired. I learnt many, many things and returned to the city on Sunday evening with new friends and buzzing with energy and inspiration , but above all, the most valuable thing I learnt was how to change the world.
It was a piece of advice from the Sunday Sermon delivered by Eiji Han Shimizu that got me thinking. He told us not to think so hard about changing the world — that’s our ego talking. Instead we should focus on ourselves and our own happiness. It came just at the right time for me and struck a chord. Inspiration easily turns to overwhelm and while I had come to the festival feeling that I had some focus with my current projects, by Sunday morning, I was questioning myself. I heard Emily Penn talk and felt inspired to somehow solve the enormous problem of plastic waste in our oceans and in landfill. We had a session where we discussed the current humanitarian crisis of migration and I worried that donating a few blankets, signing a petition or writing to my local MP wasn’t going to solve the problem and result in all of those displaced people finding a safe, warm place to live. During Dave Cornthwaite’s talk about his adventures, I was struck by his message to us to ‘Stop trying to do something, just DO it’, but I felt confused about how I could apply it to solving these huge problems. So this idea that I should stop worrying about it and focus on me piqued my interest. Later, as I reflected on the weekend, I realised that it was the thread that brought together many of the other things that I had experienced over the three days.
Many of us, myself included, having left behind work which feels meaningless, want to change the world. Yet anything that we could do now seems so small and insignificant and so we grapple with this lofty goal which leaves us paralysed. Focusing on ourselves and our own happiness, when we are already so fortunate, seems selfish and egotistical. But is it really? Happiness 101 tells us that money and material possessions don’t make you happy. Most of us listening to the sermon had learnt this first hand. At some point we had earned a good salary, bought ourselves nice things, been on luxurious holidays, had expensive dinners out with friends. Yet we weren’t happy. Of course I knew that helping others and giving back would make me happier, but now things started to make more sense. For a long time I’d been looking at things upside down. I’d been thinking about how I could contribute in a way that would make a big impact — feeding my ego — and as a result, doing very little. Instead, by thinking about things I can do that will make me feel good, a small action is enough. As an added bonus, I can’t predict where a small action may lead to and, at the very least, many people taking a small action can effect a big change. As an example, I have felt troubled by the migration crisis for several weeks, but the only thing I have done, except for thinking about it, is to write about it. Instead, if I focus on doing something that makes me feel good, I can donate some items to be taken to Calais, join the march at the weekend and sign a petition. Stop trying to do, just do.
It’s not just in helping to address the world’s problems that we make a difference. Eiji is something of an expert on happiness, having made a film about it, the Happy Movie. He talked about some of the ingredients that contribute to our happiness, among them gratitude, compassion, resilience and finding a sense of purpose, and I realised that these were things that many of us had, consciously or unconsciously, been working on and by doing so, we help to make the world a better place.
This was in evidence throughout the microcosm of the festival itself. The weather wasn’t perfect — nighttime in our tents felt arctic and most of us slept badly. At Saturday’s breakfast, dishing up food was a slow process and we had a long wait in line with growling stomachs. Yet people didn’t complain. We swapped stories, joked about it and moved on. The focus was on solutions, not problems — how to keep warm or serve food faster. The same was true of people telling their stories — the focus wasn’t on how much they hate(d) their job, or how miserable they were, it was about what they planned to do about it and how they were going to work on making their dreams a reality. Everyone was much happier as a result and the spirit of positivity throughout the weekend was infectious. It fostered an atmosphere of openness and generosity in which people shared stories, advice and knowledge and listened to others. This frame of mind also helps us to see the world alive with possibilities. A Sunday morning workshop led to a small group of attendees starting ‘Tent Amnesty’. They offered to take down tents that afternoon either in exchange for a small fee or for the tent itself, with either being donated to help refugees. They raised £240 and a collection of tents, sleeping bags and other items. Another thing that struck me was the respect that everyone had for our weekend home. We have all been to events and seen the detritus left in the wake of the crowds. Yet throughout the weekend I saw very little rubbish left around the site and more often than not when I did, it was because someone was picking it up. After three days, the portaloos might have been overworked, but people did their best to leave them in a decent state. Questioning how to live our lives in a way that makes us happy often seems to lead to a renewed respect for our environment and those that we share it with. All these things can only help but make our world a better place to live.
Lots of us are evangelical about Escape and its mission. I genuinely believe that if more people craft a purposeful career and life that plays to their strengths and passions, the world becomes a much more exciting place to live. Sometimes though, the best way to spread a message is not by preaching, but by showing everyone else how much fun you are having. By focusing on living our lives in a way that makes us happy, we can’t help but infect those around us and in doing so, change the world.
