A recent workshop I attended had me write my dream of a “Year of Opportunity”—that is, what I’d like to make happen if I achieved everything I could.

Normally we don’t share our greatest hopes and expectations since they enable others to judge us—for dreaming too much, for being unrealistic, for thinking too much of ourselves, for not achieving our dreams, and so on.

So what? I’m going to share anyway. It’s mostly about the podcast I’m working on, Leadership and the Environment, as the start of a movement to change mainstream beliefs and behaviors so people want to lower or reverse their impacts enough to act meaningfully.

For context, the podcast features well-known and influential people taking on personal challenges to live by their values and reduce their impact on the environment. I created based on the incredible reward I found in living by my values when they opposed comfort, convenience, and social norms like eating or flying without regard to consequence.

I designed it to rebel against the trend of people telling others what to do without changing themselves, which I think discourages people from changing. It opposes mere awareness as a goal, which leads many to stop with awareness and not change their behavior. While I support spreading facts, education, and science, those things rarely change behavior.

I hope, dream, and expect in the next year (or so) for Leadership and the Environment to lead

• To widespread following and practice taking on personal challenges, leading to personal growth and change in beliefs and behavior.
• Many who hear it to bring an effective version of my message and practices for communities I wouldn’t reach—that is, that it creates leaders
• Organizations and media to invite me to speak to big and diverse communities
• Me to enjoy sharing, having fun, opening up in the process
• Culture to shift viewing protecting the environment as deprivation and sacrifice to the opportunity to grow and improve by your values.
• People to wish they had taken on their challenges earlier.
• People to view protecting the environment as easy and automatic as we view wearing seat belts, not drinking and driving, and not smoking.
• Billions of people act to protect the environment meaningfully, not just talk.

I hope you’ll help!

It’s on me to get the podcast online. I’ve interviewed about 30 people so far, including #1 bestselling authors, TED talkers with tens of millions of views, and more.

Sign up for the podcast announcement list here.

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