RADICAL RELOCALIZATION

Create an evolving story of your future in a Transition Storybook		Get the monthly RR update! Email Address:

Go to the dollar store and buy yourself a large-sized "doodle pad" or notebook, and a bunch of colored pens and start dreaming up the future you might want on it. Be playful, messy, imaginative, honest. Let it be - make it be - exciting and juicy for you. What you've started is a Transition Storybook, a cheap, and frankly wonderful tool for creating your transition story. A Transition Storybook is similar to a mind map that organizes ideas (and more) connected to a central theme. But it's an evolving story you're capturing here, not a map and the story's not just in your mind - it's a give and take between what's happening out there and in here and it changes day by day. I find "story" more dynamic than "map" and I don't think of mine as a map. You modify what you're coming up with, as events and circumstances unfold, and take actions you want to make. If you're plodding along, wondering, wishing, the Storybook is going to get the log jam moving. You're own self-initiative is a vital part of what makes the story happen. The Storybook starts to move it out into the world. Some tips and pointers: Don't think too much, just get something down about what you want or need Use pictures as much as you can. They make it go in better It's maybe better to print than write (more memorable) Do it your own way Put what you got up on the wall (if you can without ruining the wall and if others are good with it) Look at it often. It's like you take one step and the emerging future takes a step toward you. Allow excitement. This is your future you're imagining. Emphasize things that are important Draw lines to show how things are connected If something seems to be in the way, put in a part of the story that goes around it, or ignore it for now. Or create a separate Storybook chapter for options around that issue. Get some ideas into RAM by reading about possible community-building initiatives, reskilling options, tips for developing a relocalizing mind - but don't be distracted from doing your own. Problems are often the result of being in the wrong story. Large problems that you may have may simply not exist in the new story you're creating. Allow this possibility. It takes courage to inhabit the new; we all get used to the way it was and we often didn't have much support or teaching around creating change. But now's a good time! If you want help with your Storybook or in moving into action with it, I'd be pleased to discuss it with you. It's not that we can't do it on our own, we can and we certainly can. But sometimes we want and sometimes it's very appropriate to seek help. Read more about coaching and support options here.