How my year of NOs turned into a year of Knows

E68: My invitation: Do you have one climate-positive action on your 2023 list?

“Hello, I’m Karena and I’m a recovering FOMO-holic.”

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is a serious disorder for those of us who grew up in the Industrial Era of information scarcity. I often feel like I’m in the Internet freezer aisle loading my shopping cart with easy-to-consume classes, each more delectable, appetizing, and ‘necessary’ than the last. Unlike frozen TV dinners, however, each promises to be laden with an endless supply of thought bites, digestible discussion calories, and an expanded range of techniques to chew on. Real value.

That is why I had to put myself on a curated consumption diet in 2022.

I pick a “word for the year”. In 2021 it was CONNECTING. Places. Ideas. People. It was an expansive, hopeful time, as we gradually loosened the various Covid lockdowns.

At the start of 2022, I was offered the opportunity to make a bigger difference in a few focused areas - particularly the climate conversation. That meant clearing the desks (decks). And learning to focus my energy. I had to switch out of divergent mode where I consume a range of new ideas and content - and lean into convergence, where I process and apply that information.

Five of my most impactful takeaways from 2022:

• Do less to do more

• Focus my learning - embrace only what moves the message forward

• Leverage community - it is a two-way street. I learn from the way they use ideas and imagery. They point out holes in my logic and suggest memorable phrases like K-conomics

• White Time - my white noise version of active recovery

• The tide is turning - With more people engaged in (hope-filled) climate discussions, we are approaching a tipping point.

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Do Less

Enter my chosen word for 2022.

A big, bold “NO” stares me in the face, written in large bold letters on my whiteboard. I stare at it:

• Each time I find myself watching a random, but interesting documentary or Instagram Reel

• Each time I find myself pulling out my credit card to sign up for a class

• Each time someone asks me to join an initiative or volunteer for a task

At the time, it seemed counter-intuitive to choose NO as my word of the year. It would appear to be lackluster, negative, and not motivating.

It has worked, however, as a very effective filter. By reducing the number of distractions in front of me, it became the right word for the year for me. I made a healthy choice. It felt good turning down anything that would not move forward my discussions on Climate and the Future of Work, and their intersection with raising Future Ready Leaders. Kinda Hell Yeah or No [Derek Sivers].

What I now know: You get more done by doing less.

Focused Learning

2022 was also a year when I only said YES to classes that could simplify my messaging, making them easier to absorb. All others were a hard NO. Most classes focused on techniques - Janis Ozolins (the brains behind many Ms. Fab visuals) gives me the confidence to draw simple shapes to communicate my ideas; Nate Kadlac’s Approachable Design helped me with colour palettes, logo, and shapes.

One, however, changed the way I think. Leapfrog thinking. Terri Lonier’s class Authority by Design helped me turn big amorphous ideas into easier-to-absorb visuals. Inspired by her, my BTS (yes, the Korean boy band) essay series used shapes (E32 the sticky algorithm funnel, and E33 where BTS intersects with UN SDG in a Venn) to turn rambling 2000-word essays into some light-hearted opportunities for engagement. Slots are rapidly booking up for her next cohort scheduled for January 28-29, 2023. Do you want to explore shapes and ideas alongside her alumni students who keep coming back for more? Click on this Authority by Design link for details and to sign up. Register before Jan 7, using referral code KARENA, discount code EARLY200 to access early pricing). Will I see you there?

What I now know: Focus on a few classes. Learn. Then do, do, do.

Leverage Community

I participated in two more cohorts of Write Of Passage and joined their editing team. I would learn more from editing the work of my classmates than from writing solo at my desk. Here are a few:

• From writer Michelle Varghese

  Michelle Varghoose's Newsletter
  , I'm learning how to incorporate stories for GenZ. (She and her sister run a GenZ/adulting podcast Status Post Adulting)

• Writer Latham Turner publishes

  whose mountain?
  I'm learning that it is okay to address the elephant in the room and write about big ideas. I've watched him work on an essay from draft 1 to draft 6. He teaches me to iterate and re-iterate constantly honing and tightening the message.

• Sandra Yvonne has a wonderful bi-weekly newsletter titled

  Sunday Candy
  It is a great balance of the serious and the playful, which I am learning to embrace. And she always includes a playlist at the end!

Aside from what I absorb from the unique styles of each of these writers in WIC, WoP7, WoP8 and WoP9, they in turn edit my work, cut out words (even paragraphs!), pointing out the holes in my writing, and disconnects in my logic that are invisible to my naked eye. Their input has been invaluable in maintaining a consistent publishing regimen (68 editions and counting!) as well as improving my newsletter content week over week.

What I now know: If you want to go far, go together.

White Time

Say NO to meetings and interruptions. Time block your calendar. Rest before you burn out.

Active recovery was one of my biggest discovery and “growth” areas in 2022. It’s one I have been advocating strongly as a key 21st-century skill. Regular Tribe Tilt members now expect a “Rest” every 7th edition of this newsletter.

I’ve learned to embrace my recovery time. I actively and thoughtfully schedule in the time equivalent of “white noise”. It creates intentional space so my mind can ramble in unstructured directions, creating uncommon connections.

I make better observations and decisions when I protect my own energy. It is not selfish. Proactively managing my time is not laziness [that took major brain re-wiring!].

I’m still experimenting. Some things haven’t worked (yet). Earlier in the year, I layered recovery time with “heat mapping my day” (protecting my most creative times of the day and week). But I did not do enough to protect those times on my calendar.

What I now know: If you slow down, you won’t get left behind. You’ll use less energy, you’ll go faster, and you’ll go deeper. [Ozan Varol]

The tide is turning

I am so encouraged. More people are talking about climate than ever before!

We are going into 2023 on a high note with the historical announcement that we humans - scientists & engineers - have achieved Fusion Ignition. This video shows U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm using phrases such as “perseverance”, “a journey of 100 years”, and “what is possible”. I liked Marv Adams’ descriptive recap. One of his lilting sentences is going into my “good words” database:

But last week for the first time they designed this experiment so that
the fusion fuel stayed hot enough, dense enough
and round enough for long enough
that it ignited and it produced more energies than the lasers had deposited.

Kudos to that speechwriter!

We need leap-frog thinking when it comes to climate. This breakthrough may just be one of those technology multipliers.

The Carbon Almanac project. It started with 300 volunteers from 41 countries getting together and publishing a book with a variety of climate-related facts, ideas, to meet individuals of any age, at any stage of their climate journey. Spread the word, buy the book and gift it (it just won the 2022 Data Literacy Award). Join the movement. Whether it is participating in one of the City days, providing the “voice-over” for a spider or cactus on the kid’s podcast, or sourcing ideas, articles and essays for the Daily Difference newsletter.

GenZ is leaning toward jobs in the Green Economy and climate tech. They are marching with their wallets and their feet.

It is vaguely possible that I painted myself into an algorithmic corner with my 2022 focus on climate. But I believe I have a complex and diverse enough web of contacts that I can confidently say the conversations about climate and sustainability are more frequent. Definitely urgent but also hope-filled. I just see more and more people engaged in the discussion, taking action, and writing about climate.

My invitation to you: When you inventory your plans for 2023, is there a climate-forward action on there? Each little habit compounds in a global population of 8bn. And each behaviour spawns other personal green behaviours during the year.

Some ideas that allow us to participate from abundance and joy rather than less:

• Find an action that connects you to nature (within my global-distributed family we trade beautiful sunrise and sunset photos).

• Switch to Tab for a Cause to pay for plastic cleanup in the oceans each time you open a tab, or use Ecosia as your search engine.

• Gamify your menu. You could increase the complexity of colours and number of vegetables on your plate throughout the week similar to the NYT crossword getting progressively more challenging from Monday to Sunday.

• Enjoy some train travel.

• Allow your (inner) child to play in the mud, run in the rain and climb that tree.

I’m sure you already have a few. So Tribe Tilt, let’s flood the chat with your 2023 climate commitment. Recipes, travel tips, cool tech - I can always use a wider database of ideas to draw from.

I live in hope that 2023 will be a tipping point for great climate solutions and engaged action, as we concurrently work through more severe weather events across the globe.

What I now know: GenZ is leading the way, and we are leaning into a sustainability-positive ecosystem. This younger generation is voting through their work-choices and their wallets. Come hop aboard. The best idea can come from anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Word of the year 2023

“So,” I hear you mumbling, “what did Karena choose as her word for 2023?” I’m aiming for a Hell Yeah kinda year.

So, it appears I will be leaning in for an extra helping of NO!

Do you pick a word or words for the year? Please share your pick with Tribe Tilt, and let us know the inspiration behind it.

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The last edition of 2022. Thank you for allowing me into your inbox each week and for engaging in a flurry of conversation after each edition is published. We in Tribe Tilt have coalesced into a wonderful and warm community.

We are a group that believes we can make a difference to the people and places that are precious to us - that we have hope and agency in our lives. Right now we need a serious dose of this optimism and agency.

I have some great ideas for this newsletter in 2023. But this is already a longer read than normal. I’ll share them next week, and look forward to your ideas on making these moments together a worthwhile read.

I wish you and those you cherish a great start to the New Year. May you be blessed with good health - the soil within which hopes, dreams, ambition, and joy flourish.

See you next year!
Karena

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