Systemic change begins with personal change, in race terms

January 8, 2024 by Joshua
in Blog

A new way I’m communicating that systemic change begins with personal change:

To cross the finish line of the marathon of changing a system, you first have to cross the starting line of changing yourself. Otherwise you aren’t in the race.

In the case of sustainability, the starting line is to find joy and intrinsic motivation in acting more sustainably, so you look forward to the steps of continual improvement.

I hope this formulation helps people stop acting like when I talk about one, I’m implying not to do the other. They’re annoying.


Now, to indulge myself in memories from ten years ago, here are pictures of me running in a marathon:

And my rowing machine readout after my second time rowing a marathon, three years ago:

Row Marathon

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