I need to rant for a second.
I’m so tired of all the charities/foundations that are being created. There seems to be a run/fundraiser every weekend and with the report from the CBC that the Canadian Cancer Society spent more money on fundraising than on research (view it here), when is this going to stop? Seriously. I just heard about Septembeard which dilutes all the hard work Movember has done to build their brand.
Why can’t we have 1 charity per cause instead of there being so many and spreading the resources so thin?
I was lucky enough to attend TEDxCalgary in 2010 and heard a presentation called The Pendulum of Marketing given by Michael Drew (http://marketingforhippies.com/the-civic-cycle/). The video might be blocked in your country but the basic idea is that every 40 years or so, there is a cycle of human behaviour and as is clearly obvious, we’re in a very civic cycle where everyone wants to help out and give back to their community. As you can well imagine, people will eventually grow tired of this cycle and we will then move back into a phase where we will be more focused on ourselves and more frugal with our time and our energy. It’s going to come to a head – look at how inundated we are with technology – everyone is always on their cell phones so much that we have to come out with a law that prevents people from being on their phone while driving. Most of us are guilty of this and the people I’ve met who never have also apply that strict moral judgement in other areas of their lives and are better off for it.
When we’re out with a friend eating dinner, what does it say to them if we’re on our phone txting someone else? Is it not the same thing if we were talking to someone at another table instead of talking to our friend? And if we consider them different, perhaps that’s the problem. Do we think there are different levels of awareness and it’s better to give our friend 10% of our attention instead of 0%. Well I’ll tell you what, it’s not.
We need to start taking back our time. Perhaps I’m falling into this cycle myself as I’m already moving into the next cycle but I’ve had enough. I’ve done Movember, I’ve done the Relay for Life. They are all well meaning charities run by passionate, amazing people. But there are just too many and they’re not effective in what they’re aiming to do.
Let’s take back our lives and realize that we need to start putting ourselves first because if we don’t, then we’re going to lose ourselves.
Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got. – Janis Joplin
It’s ok to say no. It’s ok to be selfish. Realize what’s important. Realize what you love. And surround yourself with that.
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