The pointer on the world economic situation barometer points to bottleneck. Prices and inflation are rising. Gas, construction and spare parts, labour, food - everything is becoming less, many say: there is already too little of it. Shortage, undersupply, emergency?
Suddenly, even those politicians whose narratives usually revolve around the vital necessity of unrestrained growth are openly and publicly talking about renunciation, for years to come. Ouch!
It means:
We have to limit ourselves.
We have to be modest.
We have to be prepared for a loss of prosperity.
We have to save and do without, otherwise everything will no longer work out with each other. Not at all, neither in the back nor in the front. Doing without, that is the current story that is building up in the public conversation.
We humans, our societies and every personal or social development always follows a narrative that drives it.
Before something comes into being, a story is created about it.
Before something changes, the story about it changes.
We know this very well from our own area.
All too bitter: when relationships break up, for example, the tale of Prince Charming quickly turns into the morality tale of the clean bastard. You have to get rid of him, don't you?
But also the other way round: about the freshly offered job, for example, which is nothing but fantastic. You have to take it, don't you?
This is also true for the stories of people and brands that have a so-called purpose (or pretend to have one). The famous "Why?" that wants to be found in the "Golden Circle" is nothing more than the impetus for an origin story.
"I have a dream!" said Marin Luther King.
"Rebellions are built on hope!" says Jyn Erso in Star Wars: Rouge One.
With the right narrative, you get people moving and people moving. I wonder if "We must renounce" is one of those? Hm ...
The "Blood, Sweat & Tears" story of the Nobel Prize winner for literature Winston Churchill, who was also known to many as the British Prime Minister, was also successful, wasn't it? - That's right, but it was not a renunciation story, but a - right: Hope story.
So?
What would we renounce if we renounce?
First and foremost, too much, right?
Too much food on the plate and too much food in the rubbish? - With about a third of the world's food being destroyed, our part of the world can do without a bit before anyone notices.
On too much energy consumption? - Just by changing our behaviour from consumption to use, a lot of things could be put right, long before anyone actually cuts back. And one degree less heat in the home is a problem? Really?
The list could go on for quite a long time. Soon the thought creeps in: Hey, we're not doing without, we're liberating ourselves!
What if those who lead our society, those who are the authors of our future, were to tell a whole new story, that of liberation from too much? Of excess and in excess? Want to bet it would work? Definitely! Anyone who really understands the magic of fasting will tell you that. By the way, I recently wrote down some thoughts on this.
When the narrative in a society goes wrong, it leads to the abyss. Or to the same abyss. You don't believe that? Then open a newspaper or check the news. It says where we are.
The things that are really getting out of hand (keyword: climate) are based on a false story: "More is better". Gordon Gekko put it more succinctly in Wall Street: "Greed is good! - Excess and inadequacy, glossed over with a wasteful drop of hubris. The winner takes it all, the more the better. Everything grows and grows.
When something grows for the sake of growth, I think it's called cancer.
And when someone can no longer imagine that tomorrow will be better than today, that's called depression.
Do we have both?
We need a new story for ourselves as people, companies and society. One that lets us - yes: grow, beyond ourselves. Beyond our addiction to self-fulfilment, which drives us up the career ladder until we finally stand on a rung far above and look for the "why" somewhere in the past. Fun Fact: If this happens to you, chances are there never was a why in the first place. Just a more. So stop looking and look for something better: the "for what?" and the "for whom?". Cheer up and look up, because that is above you, above your self-realisation. Tomorrow is there.
Wouldn't that be a powerful new story for us as people, as teams and as a society? For it to come alive, it will probably take at least a generation, if we start - urgently - already in schools. And with ourselves.
If you want to get up there, I'd love to make you the robber ladder. For that purpose, I'm back with my ever-popular PowerHour, my one-on-one mentoring with immediate effect for you..
Maybe you feel the same way as one of my newsletter subscribers who wrote to me in response to the last issue: " Thank you for this great newsletter - it hits me ... What to do when the task of the company you work for no longer matches your own, but you haven't found it yet, and you also believe you can't do anything else because you've been doing the same thing for over 20 years and supposedly haven't learned anything else ...?
In the PowerHour we find answers to such questions. Together (in person or online) we will discover something even better than your "Golden Circle", namely your "Growth Circle" - as the steering wheel for your New Story.
And if you want to get down to the nitty-gritty, I recommend my brand new New Story Mentoring Programme from the New Story Academy. If you want, I can accompany you as a mentor for a piece of your New Story. This is possible from now on with a very few places for pre-mentees (first come first serve) and from autumn onwards on a larger scale. For you personally, your team, your brand, your company. Find out more about how your new story can make you strong and how you can find it here.
It is about a new, a better one, about our inner story, beyond noise, lust & larifari, with which we plug the vacuum inside us, but in fact and truth we turn it up further every day.
In the process, we do not need to go in sackcloth and ashes, to live poor but happy. On the contrary, we will do without nothing except renunciation and be liberated because we will suddenly use things and love people - and not the other way round, as is usually the case in the old story. Right?
What we never, ever do without, however, is the advice of my grandmother, old Story Dudette: "New Story. New Glory."