I’ve gotten so much great advice from the change makers I’ve featured on Elena Blogs for a Change, from guidance based on my aspirations as a writer and storyteller to insights related to the specific issues I care about. I am grateful for their suggestions about how to make the most of life while finding ways to work for the greater good.
Below is some of the best advice from some of my favorite interview subjects:
If you want to be a good writer, read as much good writing as possible. Follow your own natural interests in literature, but don't read only writers who are still alive. Go back into the past and hear what people who are already gone have left behind to help you understand your experience. And write, write, write, every chance you get. No one becomes a good writer by sitting around and thinking, "I would love to be a writer someday. That seems cool." Start acting like a writer today, by reading deeply and writing until a voice emerges in your words that you know is truly your own voice.
This is not a dress rehearsal. This is your life. So do what you really want to do and work hard and try to learn from the best.
Take the worst job with the best people—and make yourself indispensable.
Say what you want. Be bold. Focus your desires so that other people can know what you want and conspire to help you!
Stay interested and curious about as many things as possible. So many kids now are on a track and they're loaded down with responsibility to their parents, their school and their expectations and I think that crushes your ability to stay interested in a variety of things. It took me until I was 44 years old to do something that I feel is significant. It wouldn't have happened if I was simply plowing along at my job and just doing that all day. If I could give you any advice, it would be to find something you love to do, but remain open to anything else that comes your way because you really never know what will happen with it.
Most efforts succeed not so much because of the brilliance of an idea, but because of the care and persistence that it takes to bring an idea to life. You can decide where you put your energy and attention and how you will cultivate the relationships and ideas that matter to you.
Read widely, anything that interests you. Today with the internet we can immerse ourselves in any subjects that interest us. The world’s libraries are at our fingertips through our computers and smartphones and tablets. Watch lots of TED Talks and make friends with people who are interested in matters that are of importance to you. Study other languages. The ability to speak another (or multiple languages) will open so many doors -- not just employment opportunities. It will also enrich your life in ways that you can’t even imagine.
Care a lot less what other people think!
The big lesson of my teenage years is to study things that you think don’t interest you as well as the things that do. In high school, I would never have imagined that I could love science as much as I do as an adult. I didn’t move my body enough or know that I love to exercise. Try it all. Leave your neighborhood, if not in body, then in mind through books and movies.
I was always in a hurry – finish high school, graduate from college and graduate school, find a job, etc. Instead, take time to find what you are truly passionate about, set goals and go for them - don’t be scared of failing and learn from those mistakes!
There are so many things young people can do in the field of voting rights and in the overall work to build a better world. First, the world needs young people to speak up and to demand to be heard. Young people are our future leaders. Even if you are too young to vote, you can still fight for the rights of all voters to participate in the electoral process on an equal basis.
Young people can study prior movements which included many young participants, such as the Civil Rights Movement. Young people can hold educational events in their schools on voting rights issues, write letters to the local newspaper, contact your Members of Congress, state legislators, and local elected officials, show up at marches seeking to protect and defend our democracy, organize such marches, start a group that will continue to work on these issues, contact other groups that are doing the same thing and build new alliances, invite speakers to your school who can help support your educational and organizing work, ask your teachers to cover these subjects in their classes, and so much more. And, young people can do this not just on voting rights issues, but on any issue, from climate change to education, health care to economic justice, questions of war and peace, and many other issues impacting our communities, our nation, and our world.
There is power in people coming together to fight for change, and that power is all the more inspiring when young people are doing it and making it happen.
Craig Newmark, activist, philanthropist and founder of Craigslist
Talk to people, openly and frankly. Treat people like you want to be treated. Watch out for bad actors who target people of good conscience.
Andrea Dew Steele, whose passion for getting more women to run for office led to Emerge America
If I could travel back in time, I would tell myself to take up meditation. The longest relationship you will have in life is with yourself and learning to understand and regulate your feelings and emotions will help you be more successful in life and focus on the important things – like changing the world.
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Top (left to right): John Bonifaz, Susan Cartsonis, Laura Brill |
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