Elise Fee is a Life Mentor, Transformational Coach, Inspirational Speaker and Published Author. She helps clients to awaken, transform, empower and empassion their lives with her powerful coaching program Shift into THRIVE (TM). She recently released her first book, The Spiritual Human — a poetic guide to Life on Earth. You can connect with Elise at www.EliseOnLife.com
Certain things excite me — like reading that there is a new nonprofit group taking donations from people so it can buy debt for pennies on the dollar. But instead of “owning” the debt to make money on it, this group will abolish it. Poof! No more debt.
You may wonder how this could make a difference — but their initial goal is to eradicate over $6.6 million in personal debt! (They have raised over $300K in just two days since launching.) They don’t buy specific individuals’ debt, instead, they help free debtors at random through their campaign of mutual support, goodwill, and collective refusal to accept “the way things are.”
Imagine the impact this will have on the random people chosen to benefit from this program. Sense the feeling the contributors will have as they watch their small individual contributions gain collective power to change people’s lives. Think of the message that this communal effort (whether successful or not) will send to big banks and other financial institutions.
This is a radical concept, and one I’m sure not everyone will agree is a good idea. What excites me isn’t so much the details of the concept, but rather the oneness that it embodies — the collective taking steps to care for the individual, to change the very landscape of how “business is done,” and to model a new way of being to those staid bastions who to-date have refused to consider alternative ideas.
It also demonstrates people living from integrity. One day, someone woke up and said, “I will do something to change this system that encourages people to borrow and go into debt and then profits from keeping them there.” Now perhaps you don’t agree that this particular method is the answer, but that’s not my point.
What is so energizing about this effort is seeing people working together to create a shift, a change, a new model. For once someone does that, then the rest of us can say “Oh, I like it” or “Oh no, that isn’t the way I want it,” and it creates a dialogue, an energy around the topic. It gets us talking and thinking and moving.
Ideally, it forces us to take a look inside, at our own internal values, at whether or not we are living in integrity with our essence. What if we no longer accepted the notions that “It’s always been done that way” and “I don’t have a choice — that’s just the way it is”? What if we insisted on living from our deepest integrity, our clear, centered knowing? What do you imagine might happen in the world?
I envision small efforts here and there; and as an idea gains support and momentum, huge sea changes would happen, almost miraculously. (If you’d like an example, think of how quickly the Berlin Wall came down once the popular mood shifted.)
Knowing this, what can you do, right now, in this very moment, to live with integrity and effect change? The place to start is right where you are, in your world, in your daily life.
- Live consciously.
- Make each choice (no matter how small or routine) a conscious decision supported by your values and soulfulness.
- Question when others tell you it has to be done a certain way (if that way doesn’t fit with your essential nature).
- Look for little changes you can make.
- Dream up alternative ideas and suggest them.
And if you’d like to share a great idea you’ve come up with, connect with others to see what support might be out there. Then watch as the ripple of your actions and choices extends out into the world. For when you live from your integrity, you are powerful beyond measure.
Questions: Do you make a point to live with integrity? What little thing can you do today to make someone else’s life a bit easier?
