How to tap into your creative genius zone to help our planet thrive
What if we can just tweak a few words in our messaging to be able to immediately double, and even triple, the amount of action and change that we drive? Why should we go from looking at tackling public health, social, and environmental issues as a 'fight,' to just tapping into our own 'creative geniuses' (as our guest today calls it)?
Sharing her wisdom with you today is Katie Patrick, an Australian-American environmental engineer, software designer, author, media spokesperson, YouTube and podcast host, board member of Good Environmental Choice Australia, and more. Let's dive in.
If you feel inspired by this episode, please consider donating a gift of support of any amount today!
This is a conversation on Green Dreamer Podcast with Kaméa Chayne, a show exploring environmental and intersectional sustainability from ideas to life. Subscribe to Green Dreamer on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or any podcast app and let’s learn what it takes to thrive in every sense of the word!
Highlights
[2:33] What first inspired Katie's passion for the environment.
[4:27] What got Katie into environmental engineering.
[10:55] Why government legislature and enforcement is necessary in order to have access to the information and data needed to drive change.
[12:52] Katie discusses the importance of presenting data in a well-designed, simplified, and even fun way.
[16:59] Kaméa: "What was your biggest aha moment while writing your book, How to Save the World?"
[18:30] Katie: "What we need to do is not look externally to the world about what to fight, but to look internally into our own creative space and to ask ourselves, What do I really like to do? What am I really good at? What makes me light up?...By applying your creative genius to the world, you can do some real good."
[19:23] Kaméa: "As people who are so passionate about sustainability, what do you think this mindset shift—from seeing it as a fight to being driven by our internal passions—will make possible for us and the work we do?"
[21:09] Katie: "What the world needs is ideas. We need technological innovation and creativity, and that's the headspace everybody needs to be in. The world is not going to get better if we just sit around with bad ideas that aren't very creative and we just blame everyone else for the world's problems. It may not be our fault that the world is in bad shape in some ways, but we're the ones with the ideas and creative energy to make it better."
[22:45] Kaméa: "Overall, what have you learned from your research in terms of what it takes to make change happen?"
[24:24] Katie: "Humans ultimately care about connecting to other human beings... So we need to think about social change in terms of how it's fitting into that."
[27:15] The two most important factors needed for every project, according to Katie.
[28:48] What is the value-action gap?
References
Keep in Touch
Katie Patrick
Website: www.katiepatrick.com
Twitter: @katiepatrick
Instagram: @katiepatrickhello
Pinterest: @katiepatrickfun
YouTube: @howtosavetheworld
Facebook group: How to Save the World
Indigogo campaign for Katie's book, How to Save the WorldPodcast: How to Save the World
Hello World Labs
Website: www.helloworlde.com
Facebook: @helloworldelabs
Zerowastify
Website: www.zerowastify.com
Urban Canopy
Website: urbancanopy.io
Tips
To follow: Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature
Words of inspiration: "I go back into the creative genius zone."
Health tip: "I drink hibiscus powder."
Green tip: "I eat a close to vegan diet and try my best to be zero waste. I really want an electric car."
Element of hope: "Everything! There is so much exciting stuff happening. This whole social change movement going on wasn't here ten years ago..."
Words of Wisdom: "Get into your creative genius. Give it time. Set a schedule and a timer every day and ask yourself, What was I creatively put on earth to do?"
