generativity - make your life count - saving lives
good morning bigmoose friend,
good to see ya, how was the last week?
fun i hope?
the christmas period can often be one filled with joy, but also sometimes a poignant one.
a time where families and friends gather, often somewhat unusually, i know my family only really fully gets together once a year, and it often prompts me to think of those loved ones that are no longer with us, and the times we shared, and as we approach a new year within hours, christmas also often leads to a measurement of how the past year, or years have gone, which can be quite an emotional time, and with more time than usual to reflect and ponder, it can be a tricky time for people to navigate, so i hope you have been ok, and had a positive time, and are looking forward to 2023?
personally i have absolutely loved 2022,
and my main reason for enjoying the past year has been one word.
a word that until this morning i had never heard of.
generativity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generativity
the term generativity was coined by the psychoanalyst erik erikson in 1950 to denote "a concern for establishing and guiding the next generation.”
psychologically, generativity is a concern for the future, a need to nurture and guide younger people and contribute to the next generation.
erikson argued that this usually develops during middle age (which spans ages 40 through 64) in keeping with his stage-model of psychosocial development.
after having experienced old age himself, erikson believed that generativity maintains a more important role in later life than he initially had thought.
during this stage, people contribute to the next generation through caring, teaching, engaging in creative work which contributes to society.
generativity involves answering the question “can i make my life count?", and in this process, finding your life's work and contributing to the development of others through activities such as volunteering, mentoring, and contributing to future generations.
it has also been described as a concern for one's legacy, accepting the independent lives of family and increasing philanthropic pursuits.
generative concern leads to concrete goals and actions such as "providing a narrative schematic of the generative self to the next generation”.
sorry to go deep on you here, but hopefully it might stimulate you reading this, to do something new, and possibly bring out some of your amazing potential.
sign up to that course on personal development, learn to play that guitar, volunteer to teach people to cook, which you’re brilliant at by the way, mentor somebody, and as i mentioned last week, maybe start a new era, break the shackles of what ‘normal' you does, surprise your peers, surprise yourself, be brave, and see how happy it makes you feel, i know from the emails i received last week that some of you have been freewheeling, just doing enough, but not really stretching yourself, so now is your time, to take action, for yourself, for your family and friends, and for everyone in your orbit.
this blog might not speak to everyone reading it, and if it doesn’t speak to you, i apologise, but possibly it might make an impact, in some small way, igniting you into action, and if it does that is pretty epic, and I’d love to hear about the action you take.
2022 for all involved with bigmoose has been game changing, we have dreamt big, giving ourselves a mammoth target of raising one million pounds to fund providing people with mental health problems the care, and access to therapists, that they deserve, and all within twelve months, ending tomorrow at midnight, so what’s our progress look like today, 30th december?
fundraised to date £424,733.47 (including gift aid)
leaving £575,266.53 to get in a day.
so, can we do it?
with hours to go do i believe we can?
yes.
foolhardy?
let’s wait and see.
but before you place your bets, who on january 1st 2022 really believed we would raise £424k?
so, let's see what happens when the bells chime, welcoming in the new year tomorrow, what a magical story if we could achieve our dream within the timeframe, eh?
as we still have one day left, i will do a 2022 review next week, but for today, thanks for reading, thanks for supporting what we do, and thanks for saving lives.
blue skies,
jeff
p.s. a massive thank you if you are able help support us monthly
