How a ‘simple’ mindset shift triggered a profound personal and professional change, with a conviction for the need of social innovation.
More than a year ago, my personal and professional life took a turn. New insights about myself, our society and the earth made a profound change in me. I will foster a better world now. My change in mindset, lifestyle and behaviour made me realise: behavioural change is the key to a transition to a sustainable future. How cool that The 2B Collective crossed my path! They change mindset and behaviour of large groups of people around sustainability and other related topics. In this blog, I tell you more about my path, what underpinned my changes, what impact the changes have on me and why participating in the Websummit in Lisbon, Europe's tech summit, is an important milestone for me.
Change in mindset
A year and a half ago, I quickly became more aware of the conditioned programmes in our brain, everyone's own perception of the world and the deeper layers of consciousness. I started asking myself the following questions: who am I, what are we humans doing and what role do I have in this? Do you ask yourself these questions?
These questions have awakened my natural hunger for connection, wanting to better understand the state of our earth and the role of humans. Reading and discussing these topics has finally made me really open up to the natural world around me. Especially the deep realisation that people think they behave rationally but structurally fail to do so has impact on me. We are not above nature, we are part of nature and we are all equal. Nonetheless, we are the only ones on earth who can limit the damage.
Change in personal lifestyle
Real change comes from within yourself. So let’s change course! Together with my wife and two children, we now make different choices. We live vegan, do not fly and often leave the car at home. We also vote differently and make ourselves heard a lot in our social circles. Sure, we are not there yet, but the change of mindset is so embedded in our being that we are constantly thinking about our next steps. For example, with local and seasonal food, we want to further reduce our footprint but also get to know local suppliers. Strikingly, our weekly visit to the local organic farmer at the market gives us, next to buying great products, a sense of grounding and connection. We are also working on our own vegetable garden. The idea originated from wondering why we never really learnt the knowledge and skills for making our own food, our first necessity of life.
Change of professional ambition
Needless to say, professionally I want to get started too! But what am I going to do? After all, sustainability is a broad term. Well, I had already learned that the key to the transition to a new world is behavioural change. After all, our social activities, how we live our lives, how countries and governments make rules and how companies and markets operate can always be traced back to human behaviour. So don't you sometimes wonder why we take little time working on the biggest challenges of our generation and why we don't have a centralised approach to inspire and activate each other? In any case, I see too few socially innovative solutions for a movement towards a sustainable future for the earth.
This was the moment The 2B Collective crossed my path. What a hit! The 2B Collective is social innovation. Since October 2021, I have been the platform's proud Product Owner. I deal with the vision and development of our products and services so that we can scale efficiently, keep participation high and keep hitting the right strings. In early November, I will join the Web Summit in Lisbon, Europe's tech fair. A hugely important milestone for me. After all, after a year of working on social innovation, I really have something to say and offer. I therefore want to connect and get the importance of social innovation on the agenda. I want to inspire and be inspired. And above all, show our enthusiasm with our team.
If you want to know more about me or our solution, check out our website and contact us!