—Systemic change begins with personal change—
Janet has listened to This Sustainable Life since close to its start. This summer she took the initiative to write me to say:
I absolutely love your podcast which I've been listening to since 2018. You have inspired me to pollute less and really enjoy the process.
Have you ever considered having "listener episodes" where you do short interviews with 3 or 4 listeners? I would love that. Hearing about how they found out about the pod cast and how it's influenced them.
I think tales from "ordinary Joe" can be just as inspiring if not more than famous names.
I thought her proposal sounded great so I invited her to be the first listener-guest. She accepted.
For her bio, in Janet's words:
I grew up in southern England and came to Sheffield, Northern England for university in the 1980s. My main reason for staying in Sheffield is the close access to the Peak District national park. I've worked in academia, healthcare and charities and more recently for the UK government department for work and pensions which covers welfare and employment support. My hobbies are yoga, modern jive dancing and walking in the Peak district.
In our second conversation, Janet reveals that she did part of her commitment, but found traveling not by car took longer than she expected and didn't do it often. At one point in this conversation, she shares she felt she had to reduce pollution. I point out I didn't say she had to reduce pollution. I invited her to manifest emotions she liked. Our society burdens us with thinking we have to ACT BIG! SCALE! SOLVE GLOBAL PROBLEMS!, which create obstacles to starting and prime us to expect it takes work and sacrifice. Environmentalists create that burden as much as anyone. Yet nature is a joy! The Spodek Method aims at first at the modest effect of leading someone to act on intrinsic motivation, which makes acting meaningful and purposeful. I contend the fastest, most effective way to act big, scale, and solve global problems is to start where you can, engage intrinsically, and keep going. After the Spodek Method's mindset shift comes the process of continual improvement, which I distinguish from lots of people doing small things. It's leading to where you enjoy it so you want to keep improving so you do big things because doing them improves your life, so you do more. Big things that spread out of joy, fun, and freedom scale. You'll hear Janet reset her feelings of obligation---extrinsic motivation---in favor of intrinsic motivation to continue joyfully. She also asked me many questions about what I'm doing and following up many episodes she's listened to.
Janet shared how she found This Sustainable Life, what kept her coming back, the guests she liked, and how it's affected her. I wish I had recorded episodes with listeners before to learn what you all like, don't like, and want more or less of. Listening to it after recording, I consider our conversation one of the most accessible for new listeners. Janet described various aspects of it that I suspect will resonate with many listeners. One thing that hit me was how the podcast restored her enthusiasm to act. Years ago she acted as much as she could on sustainability, to the point of picking up fruit rinds people had littered to put in compost. She didn't act for internal reasons but external, so she burned out and stopped acting. Then she found This Sustainable Life and it restored fun to acting. She does it for the joy of it, which keeps her going, gives her energy, not feeling like giving up. Plus she did the Spodek Method, so you'll hear what she commits to do more. If you are a listener and would like to be a guest, contact me and let me know.