Finding What’s Yours

What’s yours to do in this time?

In an age of collapse and transformation it’s a defining question for each of us who act to remake the world. It’s also a question that - for better or worse - nobody can answer except ourselves, although there are frameworks and programs (including through Scintilla) that can support you on this journey.

But let’s explore this idea.

First, we each have a role to play in remaking the world - but there’s no one right way.

There’s no one movement, one skill or one role that everyone should galvanise around, and there’s no one right path that you’re likely to chart on without getting lost along the way.

You see, we need economists who can reimagine financial systems, activists who challenge injustice, politicians who can shift policy.

And we equally need farmers growing food with regenerative practices, creatives reshaping cultural narratives and offering inspiration and hope, teachers - and parents! - nurturing the next generations capacity to learn, medical workers healing both bodies and minds, ecologists protecting our natural world, accountants ensuring resources flow ethically, lawyers defending rights, and engineers designing sustainable solutions.

We need care works tending to individuals and communities that are hurting, healers tending to our collective grief and soul-work, entrepreneurs building new forms of feminist, flourishing businesses. We need journalists writing of solutions and stories of insight and investigation, philanthropists redistributing income, supply chain experts managing buffers and stocks, and academics researching, teaching and asking rigorous questions.

We need all of us, wherever we are, committing to transforming the foundations of our shared world.

And we each need to be doing what calls us, otherwise we play into the paradigm of right/wrong, good/bad and urgency as rejection of needs.

But here’s the challenge: much of the time we haven’t been taught how to follow our callings in the world.  

We’re taught how to identify what is sensible or necessary, or what is urgent and demanding.  We’ve been conditioned to respond to external demands and expectations.

And sometimes, when we’re lucky, our callings coincide with what is sensible, necessary or urgent. But often, they’re somewhere else completely. (Moreover, because our callings aren’t static, and actually shift and evolve through our life, what was *right* for us at one point, might feel wrong at another.)

This matters because the thing that gives us meaning, that gives us that spark - those callings of ours - are always connected to our impact.   When we're aligned with what truly calls to us, we bring a quality of energy, creativity, and persistence that multiplies our effectiveness. We become more resilient, more innovative, and more capable of sustaining our efforts over the long term.

So how do you find what’s yours? Where do you start?

Image: are you a builder, healer or disruptor?

First, it can be helpful to reflect on the different roles of changemaking. 

1. The Disruptor: Illuminating & Halting Injustice

This role involves shining a light on systems of injustice and working to halt them in their tracks. Disruptors can be found across many contexts:

• Grassroots activists and organisers

• Investigative journalists exposing corruption

• Legal professionals challenging unjust laws

• AI & Technology ethicists

• Whistleblowers within corporations or institutions

• Internal change agents within mainstream companies who challenge harmful policies

• Artists using their platforms to raise consciousness

• Researchers documenting systemic problems

2. The Aider & Healer: Supporting Those Impacted by Injustice

This role focuses on helping those who have been harmed by unjust systems and working to restore wholeness. Examples include:

• Healthcare workers

• Mental health practitioners addressing trauma

• Environmental workers & ecologists working to restore damaged ecosystems

• Community organisers building local resilience and mutal aid networks

• Refugee and immigrant support workers

• Domestic violence advocates and shelter workers

• Community mediators resolving conflicts

• Nonprofit workers providing direct services

• Volunteers offering time and care

• Herbalists and alternative healers

• Conservationists protecting vulnerable species and habitats

3. The Builder: Creating the Systems of Tomorrow

This role involves creating new systems, businesses, structures, and networks that can stand when current structures inevitably transform or fall (and as history teaches us, all structures transform - nothing stays the same forever).  Some of the ways builders take action include:

• Social & feminist entrepreneurs launching mission-driven businesses

• Community builders exploring new forms of governance and consensus building

• Educators designing new models of learning

• Financial innovators creating alternative economic models (credit unions, time banks, mutual aid networks)

• Permaculture designers creating regenerative food systems

• Cooperative organisers developing worker-owned businesses

• Architects designing sustainable, community-centred buildings

• Policy designers writing legislation for systemic change

• Intentional community founders establishing new ways of living together

• Artists and storytellers crafting new cultural narratives

Importantly, all three of these roles overlap.

Because while this framework provides helpful categories, some changemakers will operate at the intersections of these callings, and some jobs naturally weave between all three.

Storytellers, teachers, artists and community organisers for example often weave between the roles, and that intersectional approach is key to the work.  

But knowing where we want to focus our efforts is still important in finding what’s ours.

• Because if you're called to build but find yourself trying to aid within systems still resistant to change, you'll likely feel frustrated and drained by the constant resistance. You’ll be looking for spaces that can be more imaginative, proactive and driven to start ‘living the end’.

• If you're called to aid and heal but find yourself in disruptor roles, you may feel heavy, lost, out-of-place, or anxious from the confrontational energy.

• If you're called to disrupt but find yourself in building roles, you might feel restless, impatient, or like you're not addressing the urgency you feel.

But importantly, your callings aren’t determined by thinking or analysis alone - they emerge when you connect to your inner compass, which speaks through your body, emotions, and desires. This way-points are designed to direct you toward the area where you can best thrive and contribute.

Because none of us should be burnt out, exhausted or overwhelmed while helping the world, and our most meaningful contribution to this world is also tied to our wellbeing.

After all, we must embody the change - liberation, justice and peace come not just through struggle and sacrifice, but also through our joy, love, compassion and beauty-making. They come through seeding the experiences we wish for the world into our own bodies.

So, what role are you? And if you’d like support exploring what’s yours to do in this time, learn more about coaching here.

Reflection Prompts to Support Your Journey

1. Where do I feel the most alive? Consider nature / artistic spaces / faith groups etc. (hint: this question offers both insight, and spaces to find insight).

2. What is a problem I keep seeing in the world? What breaks my heart? Pay attention here - our callings are often found at this intersection of our anger, heartbreak and our gifts.

3. What stops me from living my life in a way that honours both me and the world? What are the practical, emotional, or mental barriers that keep you from full alignment with your values and calling?

4. What are the stories I learnt about what I was supposed to do in life? What did my family, teachers, culture teach me or expect of me? And how does it feel to move against them?

5. How important was it that I be successful or follow the rules? What does success mean?

6. What can I feel with my heart, even if I can’t yet see it with my eyes? Trust this. This is part of your callings.

7. What little voices / ideas / interests do I keep coming back to, again and again? Those little voices have wisdom and insight!