Don’t know what Earth Overshoot Day is, read here…..
I have no doubt that the issues behind Earth Overshoot Day will increasingly drive our world and future life decisions. (Even though Trump would never entertain that thought!)
In taking a long term, inter-generation view, ‘it’ could even become the single most important measure of human morality health! This, because surely:
‘Earth Overshoot Day’ tells us humans whether we are ‘On Purpose’ or ‘Off Purpose’, at the most fundamental ‘Human Purpose‘ level?
This whether the context is individual, family, our nation, or ‘Our Humanity’, collectives?
So, if you didn’t understand Earth Overshoot Day last year (2 August 2017), then maybe this year could be well spent putting some time exploring the profundity of my ‘On Purpose’ statement claim above!
Thanks to the Global Footprint Network, you could start by have some fun learning with a quiz, that will give personal insights to where you are on this journey of ‘profound discovery’. Take your ‘Next Step’ exploring here:
As they say: “A Picture is worth a Thousand words”:
In the graph above you may find a valuable personal reflection and exploring opportunity:
As Mathis Wackernagel, the co-founder of the Global Footprint Network says, it’s not so much about the absoluteness of the numbers, but about the trends, and understanding the quantum of our ‘Off Purpose’ trajectory. (‘Off Purpose’ is my categorisation not his.)
Take the recent ‘Journey of Humanity’ presented in the graph above and how you fit into its ‘Off Purpose’ trajectory.
Are we at a defining plateau point? How come we did manage to temporarily ‘Roll Back‘ the date in the early 80’s, then again early 90’s, then again 2008?
What would your Earth Overshoot graph look like? Are you into July already, (Gross Overshoot human) or long been less than 1st January (An enviable, ‘No Overshoot‘ human)? Check yourself out here.
Where is your nation in all of this? What is their Earth Overshoot vision? Are you happy with it? Check out your nation here.
Is this Earth Overshoot problem a symptom of a bigger society / ideology problem? Will God solve it? Is there even a God? Is there a ‘Higher Power’, whose rules of existence, require human’s to adapt and ‘comply’?
If you are ‘young’ and just starting out, you have the total freedom to design your own Earth Over / Undershoot trajectory. If you are in a midlife rut, maybe this provides the opportunity for change?
Where should you live?
What career should you choose? How will you live?
All fascinating and explorations, that will become more and more important for each of us as the future reveals itself.
Rolling Back: The Adventure of a Life Time
On 2 August 2017, Earth Overshoot Day last year I was in the middle of my final quest for at least a full year of ‘No Overshoot’ living. This after many years back in the 90’s being probably an April, or even March, ‘Gross Overshoot’, human!! (But no worse than ‘my kind’ of the day, I was just part of ‘The Crowd‘ of ‘The System‘!
With a conscious decision to get out of ‘The System’, and simplify my life, move to Nature’s side of The Chasm, the ‘Roll Back’ rewards are now deep and real.
A check today on the quiz above confirmed I’m still in ‘No Overshoot’, but my One Point Zero challenge continues: I’m now seemingly a traitor to my kind!
As both businessman and adventurer, I have always focused on the truths of the situation at hand, and the challenge of moving towards a vision ahead. This has often been daunting, but vital in preparing me for the ‘The Mission’ ahead. A ‘Mission’ I like to frame as an Adventure.
One can’t head off to the South Pole, sail cross the oceans alone, or cycle continents, without a clear goal, without knowing the true enormity of the mission, and / or without the right equipment, mind, body, and spirit.
Setting off without a clear goal, and a mindset of “I’ll just try my best”, will end in just that: A pat on the back for having tried ‘your best’, no matter what that really means. That feels good, because we can adjust the standard to make it feel good. I’ve done, that we have all done that, but almost always to our long-term detriment.
Acknowledging that ‘we’ are ‘Off purpose’ is a huge inner challenge. I have been ‘there’ stared unbelievably at the reality, felt the hopelessness, the fear, the anger, but then realised that this IS life, and it’s a series of adventures, and before me was the biggest one of my life:
That was the breakthrough that enabled me to decide that, rather than it being a ‘burden of truth’, it’s going to become the source of courage and inspiration for an exciting adventure challenge reality. For my final One Point Zero, ascent to ‘No Overshoot‘ read here.
In doing so with my ‘No Overshoot’ adventure, I have become a traitor to ‘The Crowd’, yet in reality I’m actually trying add my little bit to help The Crowd, to help itself.
Having personally rolled back more than eight or nine months in my ‘Gross Over Shoot’ to ‘Undershoot’ journey, I’m fully aware of the radical values, beliefs and life expectation changes one needs to make.
Yet all I see is the same western model of success being clung to by the leaders of the world, in the hope that some magic will ‘save us’. Worse still: Trump, in his old school, ‘Reaganomics’ approach, is turbocharging this out of date ‘Success‘. Racking up huge new Financial and Overshoot debt, that will almost certainly certainly push ‘us’ into a first time, July ‘Overshoot‘, next year!
I turned my back on that definition of success, and therein lies the personal challenge for most of us, laid out by H G Wells above: We need to act, reflect, learn, and then ‘act better’ with a ‘wiser context’ of our belonging. This is adaption in the context of Nature as the Higher Power, versus ‘development’ in the context of egocentric, anthropocentric myopia.
We need all the renewable energy we can get. We must get out of fossil fuels. We must replace our meat and dairy diets etc, but this isn’t really about technology or ‘these things’, this is about ‘US’ and how we define ourselves. I believe we are ‘creatures of Nature’, and this is all about how we belong on this planet, and what ‘Success’ in that context means. Having the courage to see we are way ‘Off Purpose‘ and to change Surelywhat defines ‘Success‘.
Surely: The only success for Humanity is flourishing with ‘No Overshoot’, and ‘everything else’ must fit within that!
This flies in the face of the dream of ‘Unrestrained Liberty‘!
As an anarchist, explorer and freedom seeker of the highest order, dealing with this ‘restraint’ in a positive and inspiring way, was a strangely challenging, yet liberating tenet, in my ‘Roll Back‘ experience!
Contributing: Tough Love or patting ‘The Crowd’ on the back!
My only contribution to this pursuit can be in this personal ‘Earth Overshoot Day’, ‘Roll Back’, experience. I have nothing more to offer humanity in its ‘Off purpose’ course, and on this ‘Earth Overshoot‘ challenge. That reality is both humbling and yet profound.
‘Earth Overshoot’ is an all humanity problem, and It needs all of us to bring all our different angles of perspective and contribution.
Many I meet, work and talk with, are fully committed to this goal, with lots of ‘skin in the game‘ doing amazing work, with huge contribution and resolve. Many have been living all their lives in personal ‘No Overshoot’, and for them they can’t see what the issue is, yet their inspiration that ‘No Overshoot’ living is not only possible, but actually a better ‘Success’ is vital.
The challenge is in personal and societal transformation of a magnitude never been seen before, and in ‘silent retreat’, that is where my private work will focus. We need a new Vision of Success. One that addresses, the ever widening, ‘Gaps’ in Society today: The Chasm (Nature / Human Gap), The Divide (Wealth Gap), and The Void (Spiritual Gap).
I sense there is much to be learned from the Mandela’s, Marx’s, and maybe even the current Chinese experiment?? But in saying that, we are in never before explore territory: Neither current, nor past ‘ism’ will solve ‘Our Problem‘, the challenge is to find the new ‘-ism’ customised for our dire need. And that before ‘Trump-ism’ in its ‘retro nationalism’, asphyxiates us all! I sense revolution is needed!
This all adds inspiration to my personal quest to add my bit, and we each will have to find our unique ‘slot’ in dealing with the huge, unravelling adventure challenge. I sense it will either engulf us as individuals, or provide proactive, adventure opportunity, adding huge higher level meaning and belonging context to our lives.
Getting back to ‘No Overshoot’ is surely the Greatest and most Noble Adventure Challenge on Earth today! Whether that be for us as individuals, our families, our nations, or for humanity as the whole.
I sense we must start with ourselves, conquer our own ‘Overshoot’, and then move up in adventure challenge rungs as we become more knowledgeable, confident, and courageous. For me: Life is a Series of Adventures, and if you haven’t already, start your ‘No Overshoot’ adventure today. Good luck!
Please share your adventure stories too…!
PS: Over the next weeks I’ll give some more insights pulled for my Overshoot Day, ‘Roll Back’ experience, and my reflections of the story in the graph above.