Playing the long game

Social Change is a long game. This is a common enough phrase in social transformation circles. What people usually mean by it something like: change doesn’t happen over night. What you do now might have unexpected consequences - good and bad. Don’t expect your actions today change society tomorrow. Your children’s children will eat the fruit of this tree. Recently I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from this metaphor. To look at the things I work on, the change I want to support and be a part of, getting to know and learning how to care for myself, through the lens of the long game brings ease and a sense of spaciousness:
It's okay that everything is not perfect now- it's a long game.
It's okay to go slow now-it's a long game.
It's important to take time for reflection and learning-it's a long game.

In exploring this lens a bit I found out a few things about the long game:

• you can't play it alone - you need buddies that are willing to play with you

• you need to choose to keep playing the toy game over and over - the default is short-term urgency-driven reactivity

• the rules of the long game are always changing in unpredictable ways - curiosity and attunement are your best friends to stay on top of things

• the long game doesn't have a goal - only a direction that is informed by your Values and what you truly care about

• it's instantly rewarding and utterly challenging at the same time

• what it means to be playing the long game is highly subjective yet these principles seem to repentI'm telling you about this exploration, hoping that some of it resonates and sparks curiosity to inquire further into "what game am I here to play?"

If this resonates you might be interested in these resources and offerings

Next Tuesday Jocelyn Ames and I are hosting a 90-minute session to support you in clarifying the "why" behind your "what's" and "how's"- calibrating the compass to the direction the log game is taking for you. Together we’ll draw out what might not always be visible: your true purpose for being active for a world that works for all life. Find out more and register here.

Subsequently, we'll host an 8-week log program to walk alongside you as you start or continue to put that vision into practice. Make it Rain is designed to support you in bringing the lens of community, interdependence, and relationality to your social change project. Find out more and register here.

With the Civil Action Network I'll be co-hosting a 5-day retreat at the end of November. The theme is "finding a balance between regeneration and action" - aka “how to play the long game?”. The retreat will be entirely held as an Open Space so we get to practice co-creation and self-leadership. Find out more here.

That’s it for now!

with warmth

Jonas