Climate Despair Sucks - How to Find Purpose in the Chaos

Hi. This is Paul Zellizer, and welcome to the Awarepreneurs podcast. On this show, we dive deep into wisdom from some of the world's leading social entrepreneurs. Our goal is to help increase your positive impact, your profitability, and your quality of life. Before we get into today's topic, I have one request. If you could hit subscribe and do a review on our favorite podcast app, it helps more people learn how to have positive impact through a values based business. Thank you so much. Today, your guest is me, Paul Zellizer, the founder of Awarepreneurs, one of the longest running social entrepreneur podcasts in the world, and a business coach for social entrepreneurs for 17 years.

And today, we're gonna do something a little different. Our topic is climate despair sucks, how to find purpose in the chaos. So I've been getting emails and talking to people in person about climate despair, and it's a very poignant moment as I'm recording this. It's January 20th here in the US. And I'm thinking about the juxtaposition. We have a new president coming, a returning president coming to the US, Donald Trump, and this administration is climate deniers. They don't think climate change is real or it's made up by the liberals for whatever agenda. And at the same time here in the US, it's also Martin Luther King Day, who's one of the more recognized activist nonviolent change makers in US history.

And I'm just sitting with that. Wow, what a juxtaposition. And as I was thinking about today and doing this month's solo episode, I do one solo episode a month. I was thinking, like, how do I respond to the community that I am grateful to be connected to and am somewhat of a leader for? And I wanna give you an example of a couple of the kinds of conversations I'm having, who I'm hearing from, who's really struggling with climate despair or, you know, on the edge of climate despair. And then in this episode, I wanna give a helpful mindset that I think can help mitigate or even be an antidote to despair, and then we're gonna talk about 4 strategies and wrap it up. So let's talk about who's struggling and why. I am really blessed because of this podcast and because I'm pretty recognized as a social entrepreneur leader in the climate space. Young people are reaching out.

That's particularly true in the past few months. Recently, myself and Steve Spencer here in New Mexico, we were handed an incredible group that is now branded as NM Climate. And it's in a very robust meetup here of bringing together climate founders and sustainability leaders and people who are leaders in our big institutions in New Mexico who are really focused on how do we really be a force for good in the climate space. And to be a leader of NM Climate, given what's happening in New Mexico right now, it's an honor, and it just means I'm quite visible in climate discussions. So one group of people who are reaching out to me are young people. What I'm hearing is, you know, rising sense of just hopelessness, looking out what's going on in the world. They're starting to get them contained, but we've been dealing with the fires in Los Angeles, very, very public event in climate. Most science based people believe climate change has had a significant impact in that unprecedented fire in Southern California, those unprecedented fires in Southern California.

Anyway, young people are seeing this, and they're saying, what's the point? And trying to make sense of inheriting a planet facing increasing climate crises and trying to make sense of, like, what do they do for a career and how do you get up and go to work or finish your schooling? Maybe the curriculum you're studying in your academic, you know, classes just isn't really addressing the issue, maybe not at all, or in a very light touch way, and this is something you're, as a young person, really feeling and struggling with. So hold that thought. That's one group of folks. 2nd group of folks I'm hearing from are the parents of young people. I recently had a conversation with a mother of a young woman in her early 20s, and the mom was saying, Look, she feels like the world is hopeless. She's not gonna have children. She feels like, you know, we're headed towards going off a cliff in terms of the climate changes we're seeing. And it was really upset to her as a mom to hear her loved one, her young person saying such starkly, just saying, here's where I think we're going, and it's rattling parents who, again, maybe have climate change on their radar, but the young people are letting their parents know just how much despair they're feeling and that's rattling their parents.

I'm starting to hear from parents. And the balance of, you know, loving their children and wanting the best for them and looking at the world that their young people are looking at inheriting and they're feeling really rattled. And they're saying, what do you know, how do I get up and go to work? What do I say to my young person? I maybe would like grandchildren, etcetera, etcetera. Another bucket of folks I'm hearing from who are really struggling are midlife professionals. Folks who've been doing decades of hard work and really incredible, you know, at what they do, have worked hard to get to a point of, you know, a certain degree of professional success, whatever that profession is, whether they're in an office or in the trades, they've worked really hard. You all are such an incredible group of humans who listen to this podcast. You work hard. And they're now seeing these environmental realities like wildfires and floods and extreme weather, and they're struggling to make sense like, all right, this career I've invested in, I've built some skills, but maybe it's not directly addressing some of the issues.

And I feel like I want it to, but maybe my professional skills you know, I'm not a climate tech founder. DC who invests in climate tech companies, and what do I do? Right? And are feeling shaken and it's affecting their foundation and your ability to think forward and be engaged in what you're doing in your life and in your family, and just both internally and where you're going, it's shaking things up. So those are 3 buckets. Just some examples of who I'm hearing from and the kinds of struggles you all are sharing with me. If you're struggling, hang in there and feel free to reach out. But the rest of this episode, we're gonna get into some things I think are helpful. At the same time, I'm going to say, you know, we are in my assessment, you know, in a pretty poignant moment. And I can't guarantee that we're gonna make it.

So if you're listening to this for rah rah, rainbows and unicorn, that's not the message here. But keep breathing. I do think there is room for hope and for a sense of purpose even in the midst of these very chaotic times when we're way closer to the edge of, you know, non sustainability and permanent changes. And I do think there is helpful ways to be present, to feel a sense of purpose, to get up in the morning, and to feel engaged and alive and like you're on mission and you're doing something that really matters. And that is what I wanna speak to next. So part 2 of this episode, I wanna talk about a helpful mindset. And I told you earlier, it's Martin Luther King Day here in the US. And there's a quote that sometime attributed to Martin Luther King.

It's sometimes attributed to Martin Luther, the person who sort of sparked the protestant reformation, and it sometimes attributed to we don't know who. But the quote is something that I get a lot of meaning and a lot of sense of conviction from, whether it's from Martin Luther King, Martin Luther, or whomever are anonymous. I did a lot of research, and I I couldn't find out for sure. So the quote is, even if I knew tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. So why I love that quote and that mindset so much is that, you know, the honest truth is I don't know that any of us can really predict the future. My crystal ball is broken, you know, or I never got one. I was out of school that day.

So why I'm bringing that into the conversation is I think that if we can focus on purpose and taking positive actions, even if the results are not guaranteed, but we're working towards the world that we wanna see, that we wanna pass on to our children and our grandchildren and the great grandchildren. And we go to work every day and we wake up every day working for that. I think we can live a really good life. And even in a time of great kura, get chaos and a lot of uncertainty. And I think it's super helpful in these chaotic times to shift, at least in this way, from results driven thinking to what I call process driven living. Again, shift our mindset from results driven thinking to a process driven living. And are we waking up doing, you know, serving life, being life affirming in our daily actions. And we're gonna talk about some specific buckets that I'm gonna recommend.

And then if we can find purpose in whatever size intentional actions that each of us can take, it can really alleviate despair. Doesn't mean it's not hard. It doesn't mean that there's not times where it's like, wow. I don't know if us humans are doing what we need to be doing, and there's quite a few of us on this planet who are actively working against what I would consider and a lot of my colleagues would consider a life affirming plan of action. And that's really hard and very upsetting. I wanna make room for the fact that that I wish we wouldn't do that as humans. I wish we would, as a collective, be saying, hey, life is sacred and we inherited a beautiful planet with clean water and the ability to grow nourishing food. That's the world that I was born into and a lot of the listeners on the show were.

And I want to emphasize that if we can be working towards that vision, even if some humans aren't, for however much time we have on this planet, it can be a good life. Even if it's really chaotic and even if you kinda wanna shake like me. Some of our leaders are like, what are you doing, people? Right? It's okay to feel that way. But collapsing into despair, what's your life gonna look like and what does it feel like to be in a human organism when despair is the primary energy and emotion and driver of behavior. I don't like who I am when despair is driving my behavior, my mind, my emotions. And I think a lot of you are listening to this podcast and reaching out because you're not enjoying it either. So that mindset shift, even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. What are the apple trees you're gonna wake up and plant each day? And how can you really organize without going into crisis your days, your weeks, your months, your years, your decades on planting apple trees, working for what is life affirming.

That's the mindset I'm gonna recommend being less attached to the results. Now that doesn't mean, look how cool it is. We planted a 1,000 or 10000 or a 1000000 or 2 apple trees. Certainly celebrate, you know, those results, but try to unplug from feeling responsible for the whole world. That's just too much for our human nervous system and come back to what are you doing and how are you connecting to others, which we're gonna get to in just a second. What are they doing and how are you working in a collective way towards people who you know, with people, towards a vision of a life affirming world or clean water and decent food and all the things we've been talking about, that's what humans inherit. So that's part 2. Pay attention to your mind and cultivate a mindset that helps you feel resourced for getting out of bed and going to do what your day is intentionally chosen to do.

Are you passionate about making a difference, but feeling stuck on how to take your mission driven business to the next level? You don't need a lengthy coaching program. You need targeted advice from someone who understands the unique challenges that social entrepreneurs face. With my strategy session package, we'll focus on your most pressing decisions, whether it's clarifying your value proposition, optimizing your marketing strategy, launching a new product or service, or adjusting your pricing to align with your mission. These sessions are perfect when you know the direction you wanna go, but you need someone with experience to help you get there. If you're ready to unlock your potential and amplify your impact, book your strategy session now. The link is in the show notes. So let's get to that part. The third part is really practical action steps for positive impact.

For those who are feeling climate despair, and, you know, if you're honest and you do an assessment in some of these buckets, I'll I'll tell you what the 4 buckets are. Number 1, to join or create a climate focused community. Number 2, your work. Number 3, your money. And number 4, your lifestyle choices. I'm gonna spend some time talking about each of those buckets. Now if you do an assessment, and you're like, you know, my work really isn't helping the planet at all. Matter of fact, it might be harming it.

Well, it doesn't matter that, you know, you're trying to cultivate a mindset of, like, I'm planting an apple tree once a month on a Saturday morning. Every day, you're going to work or you're spending your money or you're hanging out with people who are not making this a priority, that's gonna have a very significant impact on your internal experience. And a few, like writing a check to a non profit or planting an apple tree, like I said, once every quarter on a, you know, Saturday morning, it's not gonna overwhelm if the rest of your daily choices are working against what's life affirming. So these 4 buckets, they're both action steps, but they're also part of the antidote. They're part of that sense of having purpose in the chaos. So let's break them down now. Number 1, I really wanna encourage you to join or create a climate focused community. I give you an example here in New Mexico.

We've got a tremendous amount of traction within them climate. It had a different name before. We've been meeting all together under both brands about 8 months, which rebranded as NM Climate. For 2 months, our last meetup here in Albuquerque, we had 38 people, people from State Energy Office and New Mexico's, Premier University, University of New Mexico. We had Climate Founders. We had Impact Investors. It was just such a vibrant meetup. And to be there and to be in leadership of that incredible community, serving that community, It's just so it's just I feel so grateful.

You may or may not have something like that right in the city you live in, but to have something that helps you feel like you belong to other folks who are working to the benefit, whether that's a start up community or sustainability focused network, something that's larger than yourself that's working on these issues. Those can be local groups, right, like NM Climate. Maybe it's an online forum. I'll put some links to some, you know, great podcasts and some great communities. My Climate Journey comes to mind. There's a bunch of them. So if you have something local, great. I think it's really helpful to kinda be in space and break bread together and work locally.

But if you're either not finding it or for some reason, it's just not working, I'm thinking of somebody I talked to who has some physical disabilities, and it's not easy to get out and, you know, join in person. Other people who live very rurally and there isn't something like that in their community. There's lots of good online stuff. And again, I'll put some links in the show notes. So when you have that kind of community and you're working with people, you're just hearing stories. You're seeing the actions that each person is taking, and when you get really dedicated, smart people who are showing up and telling the stories, here's what I did or here's what we're working on, and, you know, here's what we did last year and here's how we're growing it this year. They're just something that happens. It's very palpable and it's contagious.

There's a new book. I don't think it's out yet. It's called Inspire. And it is about the contagion of leadership. So when there's a leadership culture, either very positive or very negative, this person has done a lot of research on how leadership is contagious. When we are in an environment where people are working on climate solutions, our nervous system picks it up and it affects us deeply. And when we're, you know, mostly cognizant of where things are coming off the rails and the Los Angeles fires or whatever, that's contagious as well. And it takes up a lot of our internal world and our energy starts tipping more and more into despair.

So first action step that I highly recommend is to join or create a climate focused community. The second suggestion I have is your work. Every day, most of us, unless you're retired or your family supports you or you inherited a lot of money, but the large majority of humans wake up and they go and they do, you know, either they go to work or they go to school. But let's say if you're if you're, you know, 18 or above, chances are what you do with the large majority of your waking hours every week is you go to work. And if you work in a place where, you know, climate is either actively, you know, denied, like a lot of companies are pulling back from their climate commitments, or some are even actively attacking certain PR firms, for instance, are, you know, basically helping to get the message out there in the world that climate change is a hoax and, you know, people spend their entire day working at trying to, you know, false information and trying to counteract the science, really strong science that we have about what's happening with our climate. If you spend all day working in that way, again, it's gonna have an impact. If you work for an oil company or some, you know, an investment bank that is investing in things that are actively arming our planet, destroying the climate, Again, you could write a check or plant an apple tree, but every single day, you're going to work. And your body, your psyche, it knows it.

Right? So the psychological toll of working in an industry that's contributing to climate change can't be counteracted by a little bit of talk therapy. Right? Or even some medications about feeling depressed. Your body is communicating. Hey. Something's wrong here. You're living out you're living at cross purposes to the natural cycles that keep humans alive. And some part of you there's a book called The Body Keeps Score. Right? Some part of you recognizes that the where we are as a human family is very essential for us to be paying attention and to making change.

And if you're going to work every day and that's not happening, your body is keeping score, and that can show up in the form of climate despair. So it may not be as simple as just snap your fingers and get another job. I recognize that career and work and how we earn our money is very complicated. But if you're just throw your shoulders up, I was talking to somebody who was in her mid fifties, and she said, too late for me now, Paul. Right? But she was dealing with depression, and she felt like she was trapped. And there wasn't a lot of willingness to explore how she might take her professional skill sets and apply them in a way that was more aligned with healing some of the damage that has happened. She has very important skill sets, financial skill sets, and being able to help track money and get money for climate startups and institutions. Very viable career, but she wasn't willing to think about that.

It was like, nope. I'm stuck. I gotta stay in this job. And she's also, you know, dealing with depression, and that's a your body keeps score situation for me. So think about your work and try to, you know, with both patience and conviction, align your career with climate positive enterprises or organizations. And just keep building your skills, keep networking. I know, like for instance, I'm not a techie. I have a master's degree in counseling.

Right? But I built the muscles of providing value to a social entrepreneur and a climate focused community and startups. And this is how I make my living. It took time to build those skills. If I had an MBA or if I was an engineer, probably would have gone quicker, but wherever you're coming from, there is a way to make your work in this space. If you're dedicated, if you're willing to be of service, and if you have that long goal, it can happen. Enough step. The 3rd bucket I wanna encourage you to look at, practical action step for positive impact in this space, is your money. Unlike work, like, your money never sleeps.

If you have any money at all, even in a savings account, But if you start looking at those of us who have investments over and above, whether that is, you know, investments in our home or investments in our retirement funds, that's really the big one. Just like work, except it's 247. So for instance, if your retirement fund is invested at a pretty traditional retirement account with your employer, chances are that a good portion of those investments of your money that is for your retirement is going into companies and organizations that harm the planet, same kinds of things we were talking about earlier. Instead of working for them, your money might be working for them. So that might, again, be oil companies or large tech companies that use a tremendous amount of energy and are unsustainable in that way or use a ton of water or are polluting the soils and whatever it is. How you invest in something like a mutual fund or something like that is incredibly powerful because 247, your money is working even when you're not paying attention to it for those of us who have any investments. So one simple step is to start to look at where is your money invested right now. And don't stop with somebody who says, oh, but this is a green investment.

This is sustainability focused. You know? Or there 10% of our, you know, retirement fund is invested in this sustainable way. First of all, 10%. 90% isn't, so it's gonna greatly you're having 90% negative effect and 10% positive effect. Those you know, they're not equal. But also a lot of what's labeled as sustainable in terms of retirement bonds really isn't. It's greenwashing. So, you know, do a little work.

If you need a suggestion, full disclosure, I'm a scout for them. So, you know, not entirely objective, but I've done a lot of research. I am a scout for a group called Carbon Collective. I'll put a link in the show notes, but this is a climate optimized retirement fund, and they really are doing incredible work. I'm a big fan of them. Interviewed Zach Stein, the founder, and done my homework, and I feel really comfortable saying Carbon Collective is a climate positive solution for things like our retirement investments. They're not the only one. There's lots of them.

But the general idea of voting with your wallet, particularly with the cumulative power of our investments, retirement funds, and things like it are massive impacts, and this is another way where you can take some practical action to help make a difference. The 4th and last bucket are lifestyle choices. And notice I put this last. That's not unintentional. It's very intentional. Very often when people start talking about climate and sustainability, they immediately jump to, you know, pay attention to your carbon footprint. I agree. That's helpful, but it's not as helpful as the 3 above it.

So if you spend some time and you think, you know, I've tried to think about energy efficient efficiency in the home that I live in. I tried to think about my diet. For me, personally, for instance, I'm a vegetarian. Tried to go vegan. It didn't really work for me, but, you know, I try to be really mindful that I know a vegan diet would be the most climate optimized, but doesn't work given, you know, I'm an ultra marathoner and very active person. And when I tried it, it didn't I didn't feel good. Right? But I've I've walked as far in the direction and buckets like housing and diet, transportation. I just bought a hybrid car.

Travel, I try to be very mindful in, you know, how I travel, and I don't fly very often. Or consumption habits, you know, I buy a lot of clothes used, for instance. So, you know, I've tried to look at these things, and it's this isn't about me, but I'm just giving examples. The thing is that usually when we start talking climate, people go oftentimes to this first, and it often doesn't really scratch the edge of what we're feeling when it comes to climate despair. Because the reality is if, you know, we all switch to recycling and more maybe composting and, you know, eating more of a plant based diet, it wouldn't really counteract some of the things we've been talking about here. These massive corporations that are just doing, you know, harm 247 and using our money. So, you know, eating a little less meat, while it can be helpful, is too small to really make the kind of shift we're talking about, and your body keeps score. Your body knows that.

So if you've had that conversation before and you're like, you know, I've made some of these changes and I'm still feeling despair, I wanna suggest that that's likely because your body knows that there are other forces that are much more powerful at work than did I buy a hybrid car or not. So look at these 4 suggestions in context, and don't start with the swamp. You know, start wherever you can, but don't expect this one to be, like, a be all, and we live in such an individualistic culture that this is the easy way to kind of, like, give people a sense that they're doing something, but it won't really lead to the structural changes. When really smart people start creating community and pulling out of organisations, working for organisations that are doing harm, and plugging into organisations that are doing good, and we start moving our money, that is transformative. These are also helpful, but in and of themselves, they're not gonna help with their climate despair because they're not gonna be enough to change the kind they're they're they're not leading to enough of magnitude of change that we need to really move the needle. So pay attention to bucket number 4, lifestyle choices, But if you stay there, that's the only thing you do. My guess is your body is gonna say to you, your psyche, your being is gonna say this isn't working and that despair that you might be, you know, working with is not gonna really change that much. So the last thing I wanna say is to try to find inspiration in the process.

Right? Again, being super attached to the results, I know it's hard, but climate change is complex. And the choices that we've been making for years that we're starting to see show up in more and more kind of red lights on the dashboard kind of ways, they took a long time to come here. The process of change is gonna take time and it's gonna take collective actions and it's gonna take really deliberate conviction in all these areas of our life. Let the conviction and the community and the sense of belonging and the sense of, like, I am living in integrity even in midst the chaos. Let that, like, feed you. Let yourself notice that and give yourself a permission to do what you can in those realms without going into crisis or save the world ism, which is likely to lead towards, you know, burnout and more despair. So that's what I got. This is a hard topic, not really an entrepreneurial topic, but if you're in despair, it's really hard to build a business or go have positive impact.

I wanna remind you that despair is real. It can really hijack our nervous systems, our bodies, our sense of energy to be in the world and building positive things and making a difference. And at the same time, belonging and action are also very real. When we feel connected to other humans who are doing incredible things, again, it has that contagion effect. So really trust if you don't yet feel that sense of belonging, you're not yet feeling yourself in action, that just moving towards that is gonna help at least a little bit, and it can get the flywheel effect going. So work towards just starting to get it moving without expecting that your initial actions are gonna, you know, be a magic wand. What I wanna remind you is to plant your apple tree no matter what tomorrow holds, and take one step today listening to this episode. Make a commitment that something that really feels like this is tangible.

It makes sense. I hadn't thought of this, Paul. You know, I'm not part of that community, so I'm gonna, you know, look at some of the resources or feel free to reach out to me and, you know, if there's a way I can help connect you or I'm really gonna dive deep on the work that I'm doing and, you know, I've known for a while maybe that it's not helping, and I'm gonna do something about that, or at least start to look at what my options are. So that's what I got. I would love to hear your suggestions, your struggles, your resources on this. Like I said, I'm getting more and more emails, people pulling me aside as events, LinkedIn messages. What are you working with, and what kind of resources are helpful to you in a time of great chaos and climate disruption? Love to hear your thoughts. A reminder that here on Awarepreneurs, we love listeners suggested topics and guests.

If you have an idea for a show, please go to the Awarepreneurs website. There's a link in the show notes and pitch us an episode. And lastly, I wanna say thank you so much for listening. Please take really good care in these intense times, and thank you for all the positive impact that you're working for in our world.