A Missing Mindset

I feel like there is a missing mindset – not that it doesn't exist, but that it doesn't have a label. When I've read and learned about the great civil rights leaders, or even people that are able to make small positive changes in their organizations, they all seem to have a particular mindset.

On the one hand, they are clear-eyed about the state of the world. They see what is wrong, often much more clearly than those around them. In part, I think, because they are able to admit to themselves that things are wrong in the world.

On the other hand, perhaps just as importantly, they didn't burn out. Maybe temporarily, but not long term. In reading about people who pushed for civil liberties, they kept working on the problem at hand, for many long years, in spite of setbacks and sometimes with little chance for hope.

Building on I think of this as the Societal Growth Mindset. The sense that even small changes over a long time will add up.?

I learned a lot about this mindset in reading “The Book of Joy”.

After the intense years that we have all had collectively, I read on here (and especially on Twitter) of cynicism about what can be accomplished and what can be changed. A lot! But not as fast as we would like.

As I go into my second term of UBC’s Organizational Coaching certificate, we are going to start working with organizations.? One of the major themes in our readings is self-care, and the importance of keeping a realistic perspective of what one coach can achieve in an organization. Obviously, me and this coaching project is small potatoes compared to the “big issues” . It's pretty unlikely that any of the problems we encounter will be on the level that Archbishop Desmond Tutu or the Dalai Lama have confronted. However, I also don’t think they will mind me borrowing their mindset.

Has someone else come up with this before? Is there someone you think particularly exemplifies this mindset? Am I totally wrong? Please comment below!