Skip to main content

Leicester Fixers focuses on feeling successful and invite others to do the same - A wink to Eric Barker Book - Barking up The Wrong Tree.

Recently, I was on BBC Radio Leicester on behalf of Leicester Fixers to make a call out to communities across Leicestershire. We have plans to support them with setting up their own repair events and be as successful as we. Thanks to Ben Jackson and its team for inviting us on the show to share our voice. You can catch me on iPlayer at this link from 1hr42mins to 1hr50mins into the programme.  

With 26 events under our belt and our successes in changing people perspectives,
a supporter asks me after listening to the show,
why we are not getting paid for what we do?

Yes, the return on investment in monetary term is currently elusive. Hopefully, there are other ways to measure success.

I came across Eric Barker book - Barking up The Wrong Tree - where he goes through tonnes of social sciences articles and books to identify measures of success.

He suggests focussing on the feelings of being successful because it could take a while, a long time before one reaches the financial goals he set for himself.

One study of a group of researchers who conducted 60 interviews with high-achieving professionals and surveyed 90 high-level executives support his argument on why we shall focus on to feel successful.

Through the study, the researchers tried to identify what prevented them to be successful. After combining the data, they identified four areas of focus to feel successful.

Achievement
Legacy
Significance 
Happiness

Let me illustrate how Leicester Fixers feel successful every single day.

Achievement - We feel like we WINNING. 

At every event, we repair an item that would otherwise end up in a landfill. We give people a new experience. We get wonder in their eyes and we always succeed to make them smile. The Restart Project provides us with a tool to record all our repair and this generates some stats as evidence of our achievements. We have many pictures as testimonies of our successes too.

Legacy - We feel like we are INFLUENCING others in a positive way. 

Trough conversations at events, on the radio, at a stall in the Riverside Festival in Leicester, we share why we repair. We repair for connection and education - the basis of a healthy social and economic system - not solely for environmental reasons. When people get it, it feels good!  Also, our volunteers improve their repair skills overtime because they keep on coming to our events. It feels good too.

Significance - We feel like we NEEDED. 

Waste is an issue. Every year, 1 million tonnes of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment in England alone find their way in landfills. The impacts of electrical and electronic equipment are tremendous both environmentally and on humans quality of life here and elsewhere. 

Social isolation is also an issue. If people do not feel like they can turn to other humans when they have a problem and prefer buying something new to quickly fix their despair. It is not a sustainable solution in the long run. Waste will come to haunt them eventually. When someone sends us a message on Facebook for help and advice, it feels good to be needed and to be connected.

Happiness - We feel like we are ENJOYING life. 

Our repair events are a party. We have people. We have cake, fruit and juice. We have the tools to play with and broken items. We have pictures taken to remind us we had a good time. Time flies, we cannot feel it. When the sun comes down and we go back home after the event, we smile inside - it was a good day. We are happy to have filled it and to feel it wholeheartedly.

Can you see how successful we are? 


Coming back to money answering the question of our supporter; we will achieve financial returns eventually. 

It is a matter of making YOU in Leicester and across the UK believe FIRST that repair matters and that what we do matters too. Money and its exchange are based on a social agreement between two parties. Believe that we matter and reward us accordingly with your time, money or other resources  > We will grow and support more people across Leicestershire. Don't believe in us, we will remain an ephemeral phenomenon in the memories of humankind. 


Use the tool too to identify your own success ;) and listen to Eric Barker here
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Storytelling: A method to change yourself and the world

I have been contemplating using storytelling as a method to investigate the narrative of people trying to repair devices. Instead of looking for journals that indicate the limitations and quality of this particular research method. I spent most my day looking out for pieces of information on how to become a storyteller. I have learnt a few things. First of all, a story is a strategic tool that can be used to change the world. It is a device that most of us as some way some how have and this through the magic of language. Language, sound is what allow us to connect with others. It is through this connection that we make that we can find ways to create a more compelling world. It is a leadership device that we have to make the best use of. It is our opportunity to get closer to others through the story we tell. There is ways of telling a compelling stories. The story has to be visual in order to transport the audience in your realm. You have to show and not tell, body gestures an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Missminimalist , Thank you

I was hooked to missminimalist blogs in the past four days, reading approximately 16 pages of individuals testimonies on how they started and enjoyed their minimalist journey. It opened my eyes on the endless minimalist lifestyles that any of us can implement. I admire the traveller, the spiritualist, the true materialist (as opposed to consumerist), the mindful, the artist, the mum, the dad, the designer who with intention choose to keep the things that add value to his/her life and get rid of the frivolous. Beyond just getting rid of things, there is not participating to our current wasteful society, it is recognising that we are all equal regardless of what we own and finally it is embracing freedom. It is why I love it. I encourage you to have a read/rid, I hope it will inspire you:  http://www.missminimalist.com/
Post a Comment
Read more

Truth: All the world's a stage Shakespeare - As you like it

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.  At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school.  And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress' eyebrow.  T hen a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation E ven in the cannon's mouth.  And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part.  The sixth age shifts I nto the lean and slippered pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide ...
Read more