He looked at me across the table in incomprehension, unable to understand why I was so upset. The words caught in my throat, my jaw tightened, the rush of blood in my ears drowned out the restaurant noise. I had tried to make him understand. Sick of hearing why change was impossible, I imagined running away to the nearby shoreline, breathing in the salty air and the sound of the waves, leaving this conversation behind. Our food arrived and I looked down at my plate, my stomach heavy as lead, swallowing back tears as we agreed to disagree…

Are you impatient for change? When you look at how things are in the world today, you’re certainly not alone if you think there’s some room for improvement.

If you’re someone who feels it all, seeing the injustice in the world right now can be really hard and it feels like things are not happening fast enough. You want a better world, for your patients, for your colleagues, for the children in your life and for the planet. I get it. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, I’m not surprised.

So if I tell you that steady does it, I know that that can feel like a hard pill to swallow, but hear me out. The world needs people like you, people who can see a better world and who want to make it happen. But the world also needs you to look after yourself, to be in the best energy you can be, to maintain hope.

Steady means being steady in yourself, tapped into your inner peace and calm, experiencing joy and contentment in life so that you can stay in active hope. Unsteady looks like going all in and burning out, spreading yourself too thinly and failing to make the difference you set out to make, losing hope.

Steady looks like incremental change, step by step to a better world, tuned into the natural ebb and flow. It’s feeling impatient for change but also peaceful in knowing that you can orchestrate change and you are not alone.

From one changemaker to another, I acknowledge your contribution. Can you take this as permission to go steady today? To rest, to replenish and start again tomorrow, one foot in front of the other, lighting the way to a better world in whatever way you choose.