Friday, October 28, 2011

what motivates you?

One of my graduate student duties this year is to serve as our "sustainability coordinator", a new officer position with the nebulous definition of "liaison between Biology Department and Office of Sustainability". That could just mean I forward a bunch of emails like everyone else, but I don't really want to do that. People become numb to mass emails. As biologists, many research projects in our department focus on issues of conservation, sustainability, and anthropogenic climate change. Indeed, we play up these "broader impacts" in our grant proposals as much as possible in order to improve our chances of getting funded. These issues are near and dear to us, but when it comes down to asking people to spend a little time to work on a few key goals (revamping recycling, Biology compost program, etc), I've been getting nothing but the sound of crickets. People are eager to suggest things, though, and this armchair activism frustrates me. 


I've been thinking a lot about what motivates people lately. 
What motivates you to care about certain issues such that you'll take a little time to work on them?
What captures your attention?




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Practice has been fine. Yesterday served as my day off so I could participate in some pumpkin carving festivities :-). Wednesday was good and the movement felt light and fun, a welcome change from the dominant negative emotions of late. I have nothing to report about drop backs. I want help from my teachers and I'm frustrated that I'm not getting it, although I realize that there are probably reasons for this that I will benefit from later. I'm trying not to question this too much. 


That's all for now. Have a fun Halloweekend! 




2 comments:

Yogini said...

What motivates me: like-minded thinkers. I'm pretty dependent on this. If no one in the community supports what I have in mind I deflate pretty easily even if it's for a noble cause that's worth pursuing.

I find the internet community pretty supportive though, and I thank them (you) for it.

wandering mb said...

Thanks, dear!

Yes, I really do appreciate the online Ashtanga community. This is such a unique (can't think of a better word) practice and it's hard to find people in "real life" that relate to it.

As for the department sustainability issues, I'm not quite sure what to do about them. I think I'll just keep working at it and hope other people follow suit.