actions

One of the best ways to become Empowered in a general sense is to achieve success in smaller areas of one's life.  There is a certain satisfaction in accomplishing something you set out to do, which can quickly build one's self esteem.  It just feels good to get things done, and often this creates a drive to see what else you can get done--how far you can go.  This snowball effect can create an enormous amount of force in one's life.  

Do Stuff

They say that actions speak louder than words, and this is often true.  It's great to have ideas and discussions, but by actually doing something, you are manifesting your will in the real world.  

Often, we tend to have a kind of action-inertia to overcome in order to be productive.  This can be caused by a number of reasons--apathy (not caring enough to act), procrastination (I'll do it tomorrow), ignorance (not knowing what to do, or not knowing there's something to do in the first place), indecision (not knowing how you want to proceed). 

Feedback

Frequently, we don't realize something important about a situation.  Example:  You've got a piece of spinach in your teeth, and if you don't get some feedback on the matter (glancing in a mirror, being told by a friend, etc.) you'll simply be ignorant of the situation, and thus won't realize there is an action to be taken.  

This principle works at all levels of our lives.  In order to make the best decisions, and take the best actions, one needs to have proper feedback about a situation.  

In a very personal sense, feedback may be achieved by a number of externalization techniques--profiling yourself or creating a character sheet can give you an external source of feedback on yourself.  The trickiest part is in being truly honest with yourself.  By seeing a snapshot of your status as a human, you are more easily able to identify strengths and weaknesses, and thus identify areas to improve, or potential actions you're already qualified for.  

This type of feedback can sometimes be achieved with a close friend (who knows you well), though in this case you're substituting honesty with yourself for honesty from your friend (being filtered by your own perceptions of what your friend's trying to say).  

Another powerful type of feedback you can use to gauge your progress is the creation of goals, and subsequent tests for success.  

Setting Goals

If there is something you want to see done (a goal), more often than not, there are multiple actions (steps) required to achieve success.  A good practice is to clearly define the desired outcome (goal) and then break that down into the steps necessary to actualizing it (sub-goals).  If you break it down all the way, each little step along the way is a very explicit action that can be taken to further your progress toward your goals.  

It's also important to have a method for testing success.  Many people suggest a timeframe for each goal and subgoal.  This is an easy way to test for success and motivate yourself (because you know it's coming). 

Sometimes it's good to have a reward set up for yourself, when you reach the goal, but often the reward can simply be the goal itself (and the wonderful Empowering feeling you get when you succeed).  

"Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry, all things easy."

—Benjamin Franklin

Man must achieve values in order to live. Productiveness is the virtue of achieving values. It is the fullest use of one's mind in seeking and achieving those values. It's primary use is in the creation of wealth. To live, men need physical wealth (meaning food, shelter, etc.) in order to survive. Wealth beyond the minimums is necessary to hedge against the uncertain future. The more wealth created and saved, the better chances one has of survival. Productiveness is the virtue of creating this wealth. It is directly responsible for the forwarding of one's life.

Productiveness in a market economy doesn't mean the direct creation of goods. It means the earning of goods through the creation of value. By trading goods or services, one enables the creation of wealth by others for one's own use. Trading is a kind of productiveness. It is another method of practicing productiveness. The result and aim is the same, though. The creation of wealth.

Productiveness is also applicable in other aspects of ones life. In social relationships, for instance, it is possible to create value. And even outside of material wealth, one can be productive by achieving values. Productiveness then isn't dependent on producing physical goods. It consists of producing values for oneself.

A last note on productivity is that it must be profitable to be called productive. This means the cost of doing something must be less than the value achieved by doing it. In this respect, many acts can be considered non-productive after the fact. Mere profitability, or the gaining from an act, is not sufficient for productivity, though. The virtue of productivity means achieving the most one can achieve. Working at a fast-food restaurant is not productive if one has the ability and opportunity to be a brain-surgeon. Spending ones resources (time and effort) on a lesser value when one could achieve a higher value is not productive.

—http://www.importanceofphilosophy.com/Ethics_Productiveness.html

The Inventory and Actions lists are two new collaborative Drupal systems online now for registered users to use.

Inventory allows you to list the things you have, the wishlist of things you want, requests for things you need help getting, and offers for things you can give.

Actions allows you to post tasks, feature requests, bug reports and support requests into a big to-do list. Have an idea for the site? Post it. Want to help develop the site? Choose an unassigned task and assign it to yourself to work on.

Both of these listings are searchable and both are somewhat clunky to use still but they will gain much more sophisticated interfaces soon. There is already an action underway to improve the way these work!

Actions is already being used with Nihi and Doobius tackling the first Drupal tasks ever to be delegated and loads of site ideas are going up for future consideration.

Inventory is already being used to request equipment from AgentSubversion.

In researching some things on my own wishlist, I discovered a new cause I believe strongly about: Plastic bags. We waste a TRILLION plastic bags every year, a million every second. In a world at war over oil, this is completely insane and costs American and Iraqi lives.

Anyone who uses free plastic bags is LETTING THE TERRORISTS WIN!

I'm going to become a reusable bags activist. I'm going to order a 4 pack of Workhorse black bags and buy a whole bunch of cheap $1 bags to give away to people to get them to buy in.

This issue is so fundamentally black and white that it is easy to see how it will become an excellent example of starter issues we can show people how to pursue that can appeal to everyone without alienating anyone. If you can supply everyone you know with reusable bags Facebook checklist style, you will have gained immense skill and confidence in your abilities as an activist and advocate for good things. Imagine what people will be able to do next once they accomplish this.

I've added my wishlisted bags to my inventory. If you want some bags, add them to your wishlist too!