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This task is your first navigation decision.
If you are overwhelmed with the magnitude of the problems facing humankind, and don't have a focus for your passion/work start immediately below.
If you have a focus for your passion and work scroll down to just below the diagram.
If you do not know what your passion/work is, this vision quest can help you find what you want to do. It should be a motivating passion for the foreseeable future. You won't be paid for it. It will take time and money. But it should be fulfilling.
DON'T TRY TO DO TOO MUCH. If you do, your passion/work can become overwhelming and you may not do anything. All we really need to do is treat others as we want to be treated and help maintain the resilience of Earth's life support systems.
Jim's comment: That last sentence is the key. All wisdom traditions emphasize treating others as we want to be treated. If we did, there would be no violence, war, hatred, exploitation, etc., etc. And if it were a core value to maintain Earth's life support systems, we would have no pollution, habitat destruction, species extinctions, etc.
Look again at Bishop Charleston's vision, the Earth Charter, and Honor Earth. In your journal, note the things from these visions that give you meaning and purpose.
The Imagination/Vision and Resilience Strategies sections may inspire you. Also, an online workshop titled Pursuing Our Passions in a Climate-Changed World provides excellent guidance to find your passion for doing this work, even if you think you do not have a passion. It will also help you avoid taking on too much.
In your journal, similar to the example below, make a vertical list titled My Capabilities. Include all the things you can do, such as speaking, writing, online communication, organization, fund-raising, construction, gardening, photography, leading small groups, etc., etc.
Next to the first list make another vertical list titled Problems/Opportunities. Include things that caught your attention from the Imagination/Vision and Resilience Strategies sections, the Pursuing Our Passions workshop, and other sources. Note in the example below that each problem stimulates a variety of opportunities.
Then draw lines that connect each of your Capabilities to the Problems/Opportunities that interest you. The ones with the most lines are potential passions/work for you to help build a better world. In the example, river park issues had five connections and food issues had three. So this person might be best suited to work with the river.
Reflect on what you gained from this exercise and select one or two works that you will use through the vision quest. But know this is not a prescription. If the person in the example had rather work with food issues, that's what they should do.
Now that you have a focus for your passion/work, follow the steps below.
The following steps will prepare you to use the vision quest to help unveil deeper insight, understanding, and motivation for that work.
In your journal, define and describe your problem or challenging opportunity as fully as possible. If you are working on a challenging problem, break it down into the tasks that must be done and the conditions achieved. You will have no shortage of problems!
Keep in mind that your understanding of the problem/opportunity will evolve, possibly even your definition. You will also learn that more problems/opportunities emerge. As this happens, consider if some of the "new" problems/opportunities are more basic and thus more relevant than the original problem/opportunity you identified.
Learn all you can about your problem/opportunity. What are its roots? What efforts have been made to solve the problem or achieve the challenging opportunity? What are the limits on what can be done? What capabilities and liabilities do you have to engage the problem or opportunity? How can you know if you are making progress? Remain open to learning about the problem/opportunity for the entire time you are engaged. Keep notes in your journal. If you are writing your journal on a digital device you can make links to sources of information to aid later follow up.
Write in your journal to reflect on what you are learning in order to develop understanding (knowledge, reflection, and compassion).
Think about the problem from a variety of perspectives to develop awareness (attention and sensitivity). Most problems/opportunities involve conflicting positions. In your journal write "letters to the editor" that represent the various perspectives, especially those most different from yours.
Go to the Imagination/Vision and Resilience Strategies sections and use the examples there to help you form an initial vision of the desired outcome of your quest. Write about this in your journal. What would it look like if/when the problem is solved or the opportunity becomes real? But always remember this vision probably will change as you engage with the problem/opportunity. Write a letter to yourself from the future describing the results of your efforts.
Trust is faith in action. Do you trust that what you seek is the right thing for you? Do you trust the path that is open and do you have the humility and courage to modify the path when needed? If not, what is missing? What will it take for you to develop the necessary trust? Bishop Charleston wrote that Europeans say they have to see in order to believe, while Native Americans say they believe in order to see. Reflect on faith/trust in your journal.
Develop hope, but be careful. Refer to the description of hope in Background Concepts. Write about your hopes for your problem or challenging opportunity in your journal.
In your journal describe what love/spirit means to you in this context. How can love/spirit be your guide? Refer to the description of love/spirit in Background Concepts. This description of love may be unusual to you.
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