So the Earth has a chance to be a somebody

The prevailing wisdom on social media is: Go Big or Go Home. More followers, more power, more sales. More. More. More. Take. Take. Take.

I’m an “expert” they yell from memes and quotes. Follow me! Follow me!

What if instead of being big, we go small. What if going small is truly the way to go home?

As a coach, I see it intensely in the coaching realm. New coaches who’ve never had a client pushing themselves as experts. Programs to help you become a six-figure coach, even with no experience.

It’s exhausting. This very energy is what got us to this place of pandemic in the first place.

Breathe.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

We don’t need more competition and “specialness”.

We need cooperation. We need to listen. We need to be quiet. We need to be someone who knows nothing not someone who purports to know everything.  

I know a lot of coaches are reading this thinking: “Well, I need to make a living. I need followers to make a living.”

I fully understand building an authentic business. I get that some of us are made to be “spokespeople” and speak to many people. My worry is that having a big social media following is now being equated with good and not having a social media following means you’re not good — as a person otr at what you do. That is simply crazy-making. And it’s part of the global problem and not part of the solution.

We tend to lose ourselves when we extend beyond our authenticity. What profit a person if they gain the whole world but lose their soul?

Competition for resources, hoarding, using the earth instead of nurturing and caring for it — all of this is what got us to a global pandemic and worldwide climate change. Why are we using something as sacred as coaching (or healing) to remain part of the problem? Why aren’t we instead nurturing and helping each other? Can we question what is being fed to us now? Can we at least begin to question it, before we shore up yet another massive platform of existence that is disconnected from Mother Earth?

Again I can hear coaches reading this saying, “But I am nurturing my clients.” Yes, I know you are. I nurture my clients too. But can we simplify and bring more heart and gentleness to this process? Can we spend less time on social media trying to prove something? Can we stop competing with other coaches for a perceived limited supply? Can we rethink even the way we’re running our businesses so that we can create something new and be part of the solution? Can we get away from the take, take, take, “I’m-better-than-you” mentality? If you’re a new coach, can you keep it simple and heart-based and focus on helping just a few people? Do you need to go crazy taking these “bigger is better” courses that are so ubiquitous now?

Can we breathe?

Then there’s the issue of money. Money. Money. Money. How many people engage us now to see how they can make a dime off of us? How much are we thinking about money when we’re dealing with others?

Stop.

Be a person. Be a human.

If it’s not money, it’s ego. I’ll be famous! Get out of the way, fame is mine. Mine! All mine!  

Be a nobody. What if the planet needs us to be a nobody so that the natural world has a chance to be a somebody?

When I hear all of the people talking about how hard the pandemic has been for them, I think: What about the earth? How hard has the weight of our indifference for centuries been to her? Why can’t we see we’re giving her a break? Why can’t we pivot and understand how much she needs a god-damn break? And glory in this sacred year of giving her one tiny f**&cking break?

We are part of the earth. When we give the earth a break, a gentleness washes over us and in so doing we organically give ourselves a break.

What if we did just the opposite of trying to go big, and we went small? What if instead of wanting more more more, we nurture what is right in front of us?

What does small even mean? Here are five ways to go small to save the planet. Go small, and I promise you, you’ll go home.

1. Gently care for yourself. Do not push yourself to exhaustion on social media. Do not push at all. Be. Don’t just “fit in” meditation. Bring a supreme sacred gentleness to it. Bring spaciousness and time.
2. Receive. There is a competition in “giving”. Look how much I do! Look how much I give! (And in a weird way, this notion of “giving” is actually a “taking”.) Have the courage to just stop, to receive.
3. Stop talking. Stop posting so much to social media. Instead, listen. Listen more. Listen to yourself first. Do you really want to spend every moment of every day for your entire life running a social media empire? Really? You want to be an agent of change. How does that change anything?
4. Gently bolster someone else. Someone who isn’t paying you. Nurture them in simple, kind ways. Pick someone and do it. Never allow money to enter into it. Pick someone not in your immediate circle, someone not in your family.
5. Get to know a plant — tree, flower, vegetable, herb, weed. I’m not kidding. Our connection to the natural world is broken. Speak to it. Listen for its answer. Do this often.

I know everyone on my list here wants to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. What more can we do with the very structure of things right now to gently deepen into that solution?

Caroline Allen, Coach, Novelist, Artist, carolineallen.com