374: Andreas Larsson, part 1: Leadership and the Environment Sweden
Andreas and I go back five or ten years. He hired me as a coach when he was selling his share of a business he cofounded. He appears in my book Initiative about that experience and what he’s done since.
I invited him as a guest for two reasons:
One, he started the Leadership and the Environment Sweden podcast. I shared with him my vision of working on sustainability in a way to help people become valuable in their communities. I coached him on podcasting. He’s still ramping up with only a few guests so far, but you’ll hear in this episode his experiences, how shy and introverted he felt before starting, and how much the training led him to enjoy it.
Two, he’s taken on challenges to act on environmental challenges to where he looks forward to taking on more. He talks about his challenges to avoid plastic, sleeping outdoors once a month, limiting his meat, and the unexpected joy they’ve brought him. You’ll hear how acting changes his perspective from expecting a burden or chore to enjoying the process, from feeling disconnected to learning more about himself. He’s starting, so I look forward to bringing him on again after he’s reflected more.
I hope you’ll listen actively, thinking about communities you’d like to bring joy and stewardship to and how strong his fears were that
he’s enjoyed getting over. If you’d like to start a Leadership and the Environment offshoot, contact me, let’s start training you, and let’s start you meeting, befriending, and becoming a peer of the most important people you can think of.
Andreas said,
You might find it interesting how my no plastic challenge is developing. Yesterday I went to a summer party with my now former colleagues. And I’ve consumed very little plastic these past few months and I’ve gotten used to and it feels good to not do that. So when they bring in all the food they’ve ordered for everyone, all of it packaged in plastic, with plastic forks and plastic cups I feel horrified. I keep seeing the mountains of plastic in India from that documentary you recommended, and the plastic beaches in the Philippines. My rule was no plastic when I buy food in the store but now I think I need to step it up.
I can’t tell you how heartwarming hearing someone share how my influence helped someone improve his life feels. I’m not sure what you heard, but I heard profound change in many areas—personal leadership, environmental stewardship, meeting people, self-expression
Most of all, I heard deep connection with something powerful through connecting more with nature. I heard him struggling to put into words the feelings propelling him to keep doing more, to look for more motivation even if it means seeing horrifying things, to share with
others.