This decade has been an awakening to the “I,” the decade of personal reflection, self-betterment, psychological development, neuroscientific evolution, and spiritual enquiry. This decade of “I” had us spend hours on the meditation mat asking deeper questions: Who am I? What is my purpose? How can I be of service?
Many of us have evolved with this intentional “I” focus, giving back to ourselves with self-love. We have better understood our deeper purpose finding ways to express and articulate its relevance to the greater world. This fundamental deepening of the “I” has meant we now understand the ego and its undeterred wanting of things, causing us to strive for more meaningful wants such as kindness, compassion, and love.
It’s time for us to say well done, “I,” for awakening our egos to want more of what is better for ourselves, each other and humanity. I hope we have gained enough insight to our wonderful selves and have shared enough spiritual content on social media to show how much love, kindness, joy, and compassion we desire for this world.
The next decade however will be different as we embark upon the transformational shift from the ego-centric “I” to the collective “we.” We are now at the juncture of either glorifying our spiritual ego further through seeking even greater divine enlightenment or taking part in spiritual activism.
Spiritual activism is about getting ourselves off the meditation mat and applying our newfound selves to the collective “we” wilderness. It is the doing of the enlightened being. It is our free will to act, no matter our circumstances. It is about honouring fear whilst stepping into courage. It is shifting from a greater service to ourselves to a greater service of others.
Here is a list of the critical needs for new world leadership for anyone striving to move leadership forward in this next decade:
- Need to be more ethical and live real-time corporate social responsibility.
- Need to promote transparency and access.
- Need to be leaders in climate change and have a responsibility for the sustainability of our planet.
- Need to be leaders in equality and navigate complex dialogue currently occurring between the masculine and feminine.
- Need to be leaders in diversity and promoting the equal rights of humanity.
- Need to be leaders in the adverse and ethical effects of global technology.
- Need to be leaders in how company’s influence the socio political agenda.
- Need to be leaders in wealth distribution.
- Need to be leaders in the void of human connection, to be more empathetic and connected to the social constructs we operate in.
The last decade has seen many leaders feel stuck and disempowered, with the magnitude of the task at hand too overwhelming to know how to take real-time action. Even the most influential of leaders can begin to make the shift towards activism by starting with small conscious steps, so here is some advice…
If you are wondering what your deeper purpose is, start with serving others.
If you are stuck on what meaningful cause to support as part of your mission, ask those around you what causes they support.
If you don’t know how you will make the big change, make a small change to someone you don’t know well.
If you are stuck on how to love yourself, find ways to cultivate and talk about love with others.
If you can’t find joy on the journey, figure out what gives joy to others.
This decade, we embrace the “we” collective of spiritual activism, and it starts with small conscious steps outside ourselves, with free will, and in service of others. If we can start making these small changes, we will start to become new world leaders of the next decade.
What are some of the small, conscious steps you will take this year to step into new world leadership?
Ana Reed is CEO of Newmanity, a leadership consultancy focused on providing human centered transformation for companies. Ana is engaged in creating content around leadership, human performance and CEO best practice. To receive insider access to Newmanity’s exclusive content, email [email protected].
Originally published on LinkedIn.com
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