I have to be honest, the work I’m doing feels rather insignificant given the state of the world at present. I’m struggling to focus on what I consider an important and impactful purpose when everyone, including myself, is not just distracted by but deeply emotionally impacted by the heinous actions and terrifying images coming out of Minnesota and beyond right now. I keep pushing forward with my plans, but a bigger part of me is resisting every day, pulled toward the notion that I should be doing something to protect myself, my community, democracy, everything.
If you’re doing work you believe matters and feeling this same pull, you’re not alone.
There’s a particular trap that emerges in moments of crisis. When everything feels urgent, we freeze. The impulse is to drop what we’re doing and redirect all energy toward the immediate threat. The guilt creeps in about continuing with plans that suddenly feel trivial. We question whether anything we’re building actually matters when the world seems to be fracturing around us.
I’m feeling all of this right now. Some days more acutely than others.
But here’s what I keep coming back to: the work I’m doing to help leaders become more resilient in the face of uncertainty, to help teams become more adaptive and collaborative, to help organizations shift toward distributed power and self-management isn’t separate from what’s happening right now. It’s a direct response to it.
Every leader I support in developing the capacity to navigate ambiguity without defaulting to control is building a different model of what leadership can be. Every team I help cultivate trust and shared decision-making is creating an alternative to concentrated power. Every organization that shifts toward more collaborative, people-positive structures is demonstrating that there are other ways to organize ourselves beyond traditional hierarchy and authoritarianism.
This work is my response. Not my only response, but a foundational one.
I’m not suggesting we ignore what’s happening or pretend our day-to-day work exists in a vacuum. The weight of current events is real. The fear is real. The grief is real. But abandoning the work we know matters doesn’t actually protect anyone. Paralysis doesn’t serve our communities or democracy.
So I’m choosing to continue building while holding this weight. Some days I’m more successful than others. Some days I have to step back from my plans and just be present with what’s unfolding. Some days I can focus on the work and trust that it’s contributing to the resilience we all desperately need right now.
Whether your work is focused on building more collaborative, equitable systems or you’re simply navigating what you need to do to survive and support yourself, your work and your purpose matter. Keep building what you know needs to exist in the world. The choice isn’t between stopping everything to focus on the crisis or ignoring the crisis to focus on work. It’s finding ways to continue creating what we believe in while remaining connected to the urgency and pain of this moment.
We don’t have to resolve this tension. We just have to keep moving through it. If you need to talk through any of this, I’m here.
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