http://www.avaaz.org/en/three_principles_loc/The voice inside
Danny Auron - Avaaz
Dear friends,
When I was considering this job just last year, I sat down with Ricken. He told me that if I was going to be successful at Avaaz, I was going to have to look not to the world around me, not just to learning political strategy and writing headlines, but inside myself.
I thought this was weird. A bit “new age” for me – “the journey within”. I could imagine my parents rolling their eyes. I thought I was signing up to create the world we want, not to think about how I could personally be better, or different. But it’s not like cynicism was really killing it for me. So I accepted the challenge to think differently about this kind of thing and to have my work push me in a way I had my doubts about.
I don’t think I’m there yet. But it’s been really interesting to put that internal voice aside and say “let’s see what happens” – to not be sarcastic, to be open and see what other people have to say about it, and whether they really can help me just be…better. It’s worked in some ways already; I recently managed to share some pretty deep insecurities with some colleagues and it made me feel about 100 times more comfortable, and realize why I felt a lot of the things I did.
Today, our whole community has this same opportunity – to have an open mind and see what happens. This is the start of a new campaign – a culture campaign, where all of us sign up to work together on three really simple ideas in 2015 – being kind and respectful, seeking wisdom, and finding gratitude.
Would I sign up for this if I hadn’t had this experience? Probably not. But today I’m putting aside my doubt, my cynicism, my sarcasm, my insecurity, and joining thousands of you in seeing what we can do for each other to make each other better. I hope you’ll join me:
A couple of days later:
Dear Avaazers,
Thanks so much for joining our first ever culture campaign! As you could see from the live chat, the response has been wonderful, and we're well on our way to 500,000 of us choosing to take this journey together this year.
If you didn't get a chance to spend much time reading the chat, I hope you will, there's so much inspiration there and just knowing that we're all working at the same stuff can provide great solidarity. We'll keep that page up, so return there anytime you want a dose of it or want to share an insight from your journey.
Also, a couple quick practical suggestions to share --
On the gratitude principle - if you haven't before, try doing a 'gratitude meditation' where you close your eyes, breathe deeply and take just 30 seconds to think about what you're most grateful for. Doing it with someone else or a group together and sharing what you come up with can be even better. We did this in the public meetings for the People's Climate March (and even with tens of thousands of people at the march itself!) and it was pure magic.
On kindness and respect - we tend not to show these things when we're "triggered" - overwhelmed or undermined by anxiety or irritation. Let's try being mindful of when these things are getting the best of us, and when we notice it, practice our gratitude mediation! Gratitude is an incredible antidote to fear and pettiness, and the Avaaz team has found "untriggering" to be the key to treating each other well during those hectic campaign crunches.
Kim
