One Step

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This year was the fifth year in a row* that I anticipated I would be "changing careers to something in the sustainability field." It was another year during which I was happy with my current career as an immigration paralegal, but just felt I wasn't doing what I originally intended to be doing. This was another year I spent weighing options for how to make the shift - perhaps going back to grad school (what program? would it actually be useful?) or just starting by applying to new jobs (what job exactly was I looking for?). I started a GRE prep course, I read many job postings, and I spent a lot of energy just thinking and feeling bummed that I wasn't actually doing what I wanted to be doing.

Then I started speaking with a coach (KB) who pointed out that I was evaluating during what was actually an exploring phase, and quickly getting exhausted from the effort. As soon as she said it, I knew she was right. And I realized that I needed to change my approach. I started exploring the sustainability field with a few simple activities that have already made me feel like I am making this shift happen in my life and not just thinking about it. I may delve into them deeper in later blog posts, but just for the record, here they are:

  1. Subscribed to the "How to Save a Planet" podcast.
  2. Subscribed to the New York Times' "Climate Fwd:" newsletter.
  3. Subscribed to the LA Times' "Boiling Point" newsletter.
  4. Joined the r\sustainability thread on Reddit.
  5. Watched discussions with Abby Falik, Jennifer Morgan, and Eddie Ndopu as part of Global Citizen Year Academy's "Leadership in Action" Speaker Series.
  6. Sent a few LinkedIn messages to individuals in the industry asking if they could tell me more about what they do and the experience they have. (I had great and surprising success in connecting with an AVP of Global Sustainability at a Fortune 50 company who shared an incredible amount of ideas with me - they've helped to inspire this blog and my ambitions for the coming year! More on that later...)
  7. Started this blog.

This blog is meant to be a track record for myself of the places and ideas I've explored relating to sustainability. I intend to come back to the ideas that stick with me, and happily let go of the ideas that don't, but I'll leave a record of them all here just to honor the fact that I explored them. This is a self-reminder that I am doing just by exploring, and in following my interests I can feed the energy I have for this topic. Along the way I believe I'll figure out the way(s) I can best use my energy to create and contribute to a sustainable society and economy for all earthlings. 

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*No joke. This is me on NYE 2019. (In order to share this I'm pretending that we're all friends here and when you laugh at me you're really laughing with me because you love me, not because I sound and/or look like an idiot.)





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