I’ve been noticing over the last couple of months that a lot of changemakers are hitting a wall.

They’re working on the causes or projects that are so important to them, but the momentum? It’s like their get-up-and-go got up, went, and left a Dear John note. Meanwhile, the spark they once had is sputtering out.

Honestly, this isn’t a surprise… The world’s been coming at us lately like a dodgeball tournament we didn’t sign up for—the crush of bad news, the fear of uncertainty, and the overwhelm of not knowing which fire to put out next.

Sound familiar?

If so, this might be your cue to reconnect to your BIG WHY.

Your BIG WHY is the most expansive, love-based reason you can find for doing the work you do.

You see, too many changemakers are fueled by fear and ego, which ends up stoking their:

• righteous rage

• desperation

• compulsion to prove they’re a “good person”

In these states, you can certainly run on adrenaline for a few months, but they’re contracted, limited, and exhausting. They’re not where truly brilliant, heart-opening, powerful, and enduring change flows from.

Real mountain-moving momentum comes when you root your efforts in love.

To find your BIG WHY, you need to drill beneath the reactive states that are driving you and ask yourself: What is it that I cherish, care about, and love so fiercely that I’m willing to keep stretching for it?

Let’s say you got into the environmental movement because you were so pissed off at corporate greed. Understandable. But there’s a good chance you’re going to completely lose your shit when you have to come face to face with this anger every day.

Instead, what if your WHY was your awe of nature—how it nourishes you and makes you feel alive—and you let your work flow from there?

Or maybe it’s the lion-hearted love you feel for your young nieces and nephews and their future.

Or your deep reverence for justice and your desire to protect the most vulnerable in low-income countries from the outsized harm climate catastrophe will cause them.

Same work. Totally different fuel.

Let’s explore a few more…

If you’re a content creator in social justice who’s creatively fried, try imagining your finished film lighting someone up with a sense of power and possibility.

If you’re doing political lobbying for animal protection, this might mean recalling an animal you’ve witnessed suffering in intensive confinement and picturing them FREE… and feeling that.

If you’re serving someone a hot meal, tune into the moment this precious being’s shoulders drop as they feel seen, fed, and cared for.

Courage, resilience, and creativity can only prosper in a WHY that is far bigger than the fear and exhaustion.

So, find the love at the root of your WHY.

See it. Feel it. Breathe into it.

Hugs, Kimberly