Joy is such a foreign word in 2020, right? It feels — especially right now as we await the outcome of the election in the U.S. — that we are surrounded by everything but joy — anxiety, anger, tension, depression, restlessness, exhaustion swirl around us.

But here’s a radical idea for your consideration: we are infinitely more powerful — in creating social change, or really in doing anything — when we approach it from a place of joy.

Maybe joy isn’t the right word for you, but you have to admit that there is something incredibly powerful when you are connected to and acting from what lights you up. Use whatever word you want to describe that space — passion, energy, excitement, inspiration, imagination, happiness, bliss — but it is undeniable that there is something magical that happens there. Humor me if I use “joy” as a shorthand.

Sadly, for many social change leaders (maybe you too?) — especially as we near the end of a year that JUST WON’T QUIT — joy is extremely difficult to find.

Again and again in the social change sector I have witnessed a lack of joy worn as a badge, or considered a right of passage. It’s as if social change leaders believe (myself once included) that the work is not effective if it is not tormented. If you are not miserable, you are not working hard enough.

But the opposite is true. You accomplish so much more when you are inspiring, joyful, energized, passionate. It is so much easier to convince funders to invest, your board to step up, partners to engage if you are emanating passion.

Read the full article about finding joy in social impact work by Nell Edgington at Social Velocity.