Happy Friday.
Let’s end 2022 on a bright note.
When the world feels darkest, it becomes necessary for us to shine our light. And that light is joy.
This is the operating premise behind a wonderful book called The Lightmaker’s Manifesto: How to Work for Change without Losing Your Joy. It was written by Karen Walrond, a former corporate attorney turned writer, leadership coach, activist, and photographer. She also has a powerful way of thinking about joy. It’s not looking for fun or happy moments, and it’s definitely not grabbing snippets of self-care in an attempt to stay on some sort of track.
It's about intentionally becoming a lightmaker.
“We’re talking about things that are tied deeply to meaning and purpose, and that’s much deeper,” she told me by phone. “It’s bigger. Joy subsumes happiness. It’s tied to meaning, which is often tied to the sort of incremental progress that comes from struggle and working hard.”
And Lord knows, we’re all working hard.
I first met Walrond on a reporting trip to Malawi in 2015 where we spent quality time with people who were working to alleviate extreme poverty through innovations in agriculture, financial justice, and public health. She brings powerful empathetic wisdom to her work, both in words and photos, and we bonded immediately. We were both in our element, fully present for a novel experience that felt vital. And yes, we felt joy.
That experience, like many others big and small she recounted in her well-reported book, would count as an “experience of meaning,” one which is infused with purpose in service of a vision for a better world. But here’s the lightmaker twist: To truly unearth joy, your own gifts, passions, and talents must be fully engaged. I find it to be a compelling upgrade to the “bring your full self” belonging quest that so many organizations struggle with.
“We often forget the people who work quietly behind the scenes for good and justice—and who daily activate their own gifts and talents as part of a larger cause,” she writes. And if that cause is an intentional decision to build a more inclusive workforce, be a better leader, align business to a broader purpose, and challenge the status quo, then that means you are a lightmaker too.
But only if you make it possible to be fully present for experiences of meaning. And that means taking on the practice of cultivating joy.
Walrond passed on an exercise that she says will help anyone who takes it on to better understand their joy, which includes embracing their gifts, understanding what they love to do, becoming clear on where their talent can best be applied in the world and cultivating a disciplined practice of listening to their inner voice.
“Ask yourself these three questions every day and record them somewhere,” she says. “I like to journal, that might not be your thing. But if you give it 21 days, I promise you, you will see some fascinating patterns emerge.”
The three questions are:
—What will make me feel connected today?
—What will make me feel healthy today?
—What will give me a sense of purpose today?
Her final bit of advice is to remember that lightmakers are all around us, all the time. Draw strength from their glow. “When I started writing the book in 2020, George Floyd was still alive. Breonna Taylor was still alive. California, Australia wasn’t on fire,” she paused. As things got worse, she noticed the human tendency to focus on the bad things. Don't let that derail you, she says. “Seek out the good news, notice the people who are using their gifts to do amazing things.” And look close to home—they’re in your community, your house of worship, standing next to you at the grocery store.
“Make a practice of finding them,” she says. “Make looking for the light part of every day.”
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
This is the last raceAhead until Jan. 6, 2023, and we are so grateful for you. I’ll be taking on Walrond’s lightmaker exercise in January, so follow me on Instagram and LinkedIn as I share my journey—and feel free to share your own.
We are working behind the scenes to make 2023 a breakthrough year for raceAhead with new elements and features that we think will better serve this community of inclusion-minded professionals who light our way. Stay tuned. And until we meet again, be joyful.
This edition of raceAhead was edited by Rachel Lobdell.
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