How Can We Make Our Actions Meaningful

Now, more than ever, our actions speak as loud as our words. Around the world, we as peoples and communities are advocating for rights, equal recognition, racial equity. and anti-racist systems. We are also advocating for science, for promising and equitable health care, for protection, and for our survival during the COVID-19 pandemic. So how can we make sure that our words turn into action and our actions become impactful and meaningful?

My answer would be to start by listening. By listening, we learn, and when we learn we make decisions that benefit all of us. Listen to others and listen to the science that is presented to us. As a scientist, I remain biased towards data and using it as guidance to make decisions. It is also to be noted that data and misinformation sometimes look identical. We need to dive deeper into claims and ask tough questions when we see something that we don't recognize. Secondly, we need to collaborate. No one sector of function, whether is it economic, social, health, politics, or environmental, is going to beat this pandemic. This pandemic has taught us that we cant continue to be working in silos. The most impactful solutions will come out of collaboration and community building. This is my next point, community building. We need to lift our communities and talk amongst ourselves on ways we can address some of the issues we are facing. We are strength in numbers. We should leverage that. We have seen this happen throughout the summer but it's important to not lose that moving forward.

Time windfall & Financial windfall. These are terms I recently learned in a podcast I was listening to and they stuck with me. The windfall of time allows us to use the time we would have spent elsewhere (pre-pandemic) and put it towards researching and learning about the things happening around us. Using the “surplus” time to create wellness habits for us and with those around us. The windfall of our finances, by extrapolation, means using the money we would have spent outside, getting our morning coffee for example, on issues we care about. Giving to those who need it more than us and/or organizations that are working for our community’s health and wellbeing. I hope to echo what I learned in my actions and pass it on in conversations with those around me.

Lastly, meaningful actions are very subjective. We cant compare our actions with others around us. We definitely shouldn't compete with others to see who may be doing the most meaningful work… that isn't the point. Finding ourselves in a situation like that may require us to reflect back and understand why we are doing what we are doing. Is it for personal gain or the betterment of something? Sometimes we need to ask ourselves tough questions. In the end, our actions may be internal or external with the common goal of betterment during this COVID-19 crisis. I hope we all come together during this time and help one another in achieving our meaningful actions!

Here is the link to the podcast I refer to in this article. I listened to it on Spotify but it's accessible on various other platforms too! https://open.spotify.com/episode/5pasAqstD3aauz29YJn0sZ?si=V3yXCtvhTB6zZGrsW8sBlg