In 2015, the UN launched the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. They cover a wide range of critical and complex issues facing our planet and societies. In 2020, five years into these 15-year goals, there has not been much progress at all.
What has emerged is a realization, that we need to not just think about What are we doing to do, but also Who do we need to be and become. What kind of inner development is required of us as people in order to address and make real progress on the Sustainable Development Goals?
The Inner Development Goals are an inspiring initiative focusing our essential learning of inner capacities, skills, qualities in 23 areas that cover 5 broad categories of Being, Thinking, Relating, Collaborating, and Acting.
What kind of inner development is required of you in the complexity you may find yourself in - in your sector, your organization, your family? The thinking and way of being that got us into the mess we are in, cannot be the ones that get us out of it.
We are invited to become learners. And becoming a learner, requires us to be in the place of “not knowing”
“It is difficult to learn if you already know.”
- Amy Edmundson, Expert in Psychological Safety, Harvard Business School
This takes humility and courage.
Are you willing to become a learner and ask Who am I invited to be and become? What inner development am I being called into?
It's an inner journey that requires courage.
Here's some good news: you are not alone.
( I invite you to carve out fifteen minutes. Five minutes to watch the video above. And ten minutes to take a walk to ponder. )
This is spot on Dave! I’ve long thought that our downfall is an evolutionary one - our capacity for intellect and technological advance far outstrips our human capacity to manage it. And yet we continue to focus on teaching facts and figures in schools rather than also helping ourselves develop the inner traits that may enable us to survive ourselves.