By Jeremy Williams

This week I’ve been reading Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s book What If we Get it Right?, all about climate solutions and imagining the positive side of change captured in the title. One of the things she mentions early on is the importance of finding our personal place in climate action – not the general sense of what must be done, but a contribution that is specifically ours.

I know people who have struggled with this, because they want to do something but aren’t drawn to the most visible forms of environmental action, which are protest and activism. Knowing that’s not for them, they don’t get involved any further. But of course there are thousands of different things we could do, across many different spheres of life.

Johnson suggests a climate tweak to the Japanese idea of ikigai, a sense of life purpose or calling. Ikigai is all about finding the intersection of your interests and skills, where you will find work most rewarding. In a context of climate action, she uses a ‘climate venn’ to help people find their place.

If we map the work that needs doing, the skills we can bring, and what bring us satisfaction, there’s a sweet spot that could be our personal contribution to the climate challenge. You can download this graph here if you want to use it in workshops, and you’ll find Johnson’s TED talk about it at the same link.

I was reflecting on this as I did the dishes, and much of my own work lands right in that blue triangle. My writing certainly does, and my work with schools. I can see it with some of my colleagues too. Some of the other things I’ve got involved in haven’t quite ticked all three categories, and have been much harder to sustain.

One thing I rather like about Johnson’s graph here is the word in that top circle: joy. Joy isn’t something generally associated with the environmental movement. It’s not a word we use very often about our work either. Work culture tends to talk about balance, purpose, impact or success as measures of good work. But joy isn’t something for children. It isn’t naive or silly or twee, and we should talk about it more.

Have you found your climate action?

First published in The Earthbound Report.