People Fighting for Change: EcoStudio

My thanks to Eric Elizondo of EcoStudio for turning me on to some great sustainability resources. His blog is jam packed with information on products, ideas and so much more.

Green City Blue Lake is a website created by EcoCity Cleveland, a nonprofit organization that has been at the center of sustainability activities and creative planning efforts in Northeast Ohio since 1992.

Here's an excerpt from their newsletter that Eric forwarded to me:

Warming towards Earth Day
It may have seemed like a long Cleveland winter, but there are signs that our climate is growing warmer. Based on recent temperature data, the national Arbor Day Foundation has published an updated version of the 1990 USDA plant hardiness zone map. The new map shows that much of Ohio has warmed a full zone.

Go here to see an animated display of how the hardiness zones have shifted north.

If you only click on link in this post, click the last one. You'll be directed to an animated map that shows the change in hardiness zones since 1990. It's absolutely staggering.

What are you and I doing to prevent this situation from getting worse?

Chasing Change Welcomes M.J. Clark

I'm delighted to welcome a guest this week on Chasing Change. My friend and coach, M.J. Clark, is a professional speaker, leadership consultant, and executive coach with Integrated Leadership Systems in Columbus, OH. You can read her bio here.

Are You Ready To Change?

I love the name of this blog – Chasing Change – because it identifies change as something good, something we are chasing after. I love change, because to me change means growth, but I often encounter people who greatly fear change. Change is definitely something you must be ready for and something that takes hard work. We spend lifetimes developing bad habits and harmful self-talk that takes time and effort to undo.

Through my work as an executive coach for Integrated Leadership Systems, I have worked with people in all stages of change. Many times people think they want to change but, when faced with a coach who challenges them, they quickly come up with a wide range of reasons why they can’t begin now. Studies have shown that the ability for a person to make a permanent change depends on their readiness to change. People go through five stages of change before a permanent, new habit can be formed:

• Precontemplation – No intention to change any time soon.
• Contemplation – Knows a problems exists, but is not committed to taking action to fix it.
• Preparation – Have not taken action in the last year, but intends to in the next month or two.
• Action – Taking action to modify behavior (involves expenditure of time and energy).
• Maintenance – Habit has been changed and person works to prevent relapse.

During this process, some people will slip back into old habits from time to time. This should be expected. They are still moving forward, but they have to keep learning and trying new things to make the new habit permanent. Be patient with yourself or those you know who are trying to change. Change takes time and a great deal of effort. It also takes courage.

We all have baggage we carry with us from childhood. Sometimes dysfunctional behavior that is a byproduct of our personal baggage leaks out like acid into our personal and work relationships and can destroy what we have worked so hard to achieve in our lives. Facing our past and our fears is scary, but it’s the only way to move forward to become a stronger, wiser, more self-aware individual.

Change is a character-building activity I highly recommend. And I welcome any questions you might have or comments you would like to share if you are facing change-related challenges in your life. I do know this: you won’t change if you just sit around reading blog postings about it. So lace up those sneakers, and let the chase begin!


M.J. Clark
Business Consultant
Integrated Leadership Systems
614/214-7062 (cell)
mj@integratedleader.com

Seth Godin on Being Ordinary

I subscribe to Seth Godin's blog.

He always surprises me with the amount of truth he can capture in a just few short sentences. His most recent post, Ordinary is cheaper than you, is a wake up call for young professionals everywhere.

Seth eloquently points out:

...if all the best you can do is 'good enough', then why on earth should I pay you the benefits and wages that it costs to get you to do that work?

What are you doing (or not doing) to earn the money that an employer intends to spend on you?

Here are a few ideas to help you get started.

Three Reasons to Start a Blog

Have you ever considered starting a blog? For me, it was curiosity and the need to learn how blogs impact communications on the web that first peaked my interest.

Recently though, I've struggled with finding inspiration for my content on Chasing Change. With that in mind, I figured I would retrace my steps and really dig into why I feel compelled to blog at all.

After some meditation and a few conversations with other bloggers who have inspired me, here are my top three reasons to start a blog:

1. The Freedom to Have a Voice
I remember reading an article in 2005 about how professional journalists felt threatened by the blogosphere. Their frustration is understandable. They paid good money and spent their time going to school to be journalists. Why should some chump with a laptop (like me for instance) have the ability to publish their thoughts to thousands, even millions of readers? That's just not fair! (As I quietly chuckle.)

Web technology makes it so easy to publish our thoughts with a simple mouse click. There are a large number of blog services that are provided at no cost, so why not take advantage of the opportunity? What do you have to loose?

2. Writing an Ethical Will
My friend, teacher (and employer), Artie Isaac, blogs at Net Cotton Content. I enjoy reading his posts daily, and so the other day, I asked him: "Why do you blog?"

This was one of his answers: "In the Jewish tradition, there's the concept of an ethical will. A father leaves an ethical will as was a way to pass on his morals and wisdom to his children."

Having a 17 month-old son myself, I really like this idea. In a sense, a blog can be an electronic way to pass on more than just your possessions to the next generations. It's a medium to capture your path through life, so that you and your beliefs will be remembered by those next in line.

3. Gaining Credibility Through Visibility
Being in business development, it's my job to build relationships for my company. Hopefully those relationships, if nurtured honestly, will eventually translate into revenue for Young Isaac.

Over the past six years I've learned that the most critical piece of this formula is finding ways to establish a level of trust among your network. The challenge? How can you expect people to trust you when they only know you as a part of your company?

Heres my solution: with every business card and every email will come the URL of Chasing Change. Here it is folks. Here's what I'm about. I blog to lay my cards on the table for all to see. By reading, you can watch as I change both personally and professionally.

And by sharing my experiences - the good with the bad - maybe someday I'll even earn your trust...

What If?

My wife and I are bargain shoppers. Today, after a call from her father, we headed to Schottenstein's Department Store on the Hilltop, armed with a tip that men's suits we on clearance.

After about thirty minutes, I found a great deal and a new suit. and so we headed to the check out. While paying, I happened to eves drop on a heated conversation between our clerk and her manager:

Clerk: "What is she doing? I don't know what the hell her problem is."

Manager: "She was saying that she gave the little girl forty dollars and she lost it. Who gives a little girl $40 to hold on to in the first place? She didn't deserve being screamed at like that."

As the conversation finished, I looked up to notice an agitated women in her late 40's approaching the line of shoppers. Her rapid movements made it seem as if something was terribly wrong.

A blond little girl was following the women. She must have been no more than nine or ten years old, and I'll never forget the expression of fear and embarrassment radiating from her face.

The angry women approached.

"I need four quarters" she shouted in desperation while waving a dollar bill. "Do you have four quarters? Do you have two quarters? Here, I'll even give ya a dollar for two quarters."

It was then that I noticed her her pupils. They were empty pin holes rolling around in her head. Her teeth were rotten, skin pale and he clothes were tattered and unkempt. It suddenly dawned on me that I had seen people like this before. Like them, this lady was in the clutches of a meth-amphetamine binge.

We had paid with a debit card and so I had no cash on my pocket to give. When she realized I couldn't help, the women again turned to the girl and began to call her names, blaming her for my lack of pocket change. The bystanders at the check out stood silent in shock, all of us looking to each other for an answer. For an action.

Should we do something? Is it our place to do something? What can we do?

After a moment, a small group of patrons and I approached the store manager to suggest that it might be time to call the police. He shook his head in agreement. Then he stood still.

As we exited and walked to the car, I couldn't keep my head from turning and looking back to for the girl. Should I have done more? Would it have made a difference for this poor child, or only made her situation worse? What else could I have done to protect her from a person consumed by a drug, who was supposed to be her care taker.

The ride home was uncomfortably silent.

Standing up together
What if I had intervened and tried to change the situation? What if everyone standing in line would have come to the little girl's rescue? What if the mob of shoppers had stopped, and cried out:

"That's wrong! You have no right to put a child through that! Is her confidence and self-esteem worth your next fix?"

Would that have changed anything?