But I don’t even want to do a project!

What if you don’t want to do a project in the first place?

There are many other ways that people are looking for help and ways to help others by doing work that they feel resonant with.

A few ideas to consider:

• Are you really just needing a job that provides enough income to provide for a comfortable lifestyle?
• Are you a single parent looking for a way to work either less or to focus on raising your children whilst they are young and needing full time care?
• Are you more interested in a small scale, perhaps local community based project to fill a need for services in your community, but don’t want to try to take on the world by duplicating a local solution everywhere else?
• What really excites you when you think in terms of:  “If you had the money and other resources to do something that would make the world a better place what would I do?”  Write it down and think in terms of the funding has been approved and is available to you to use now.  What would you do today?  What would you do next?  Who do you know you would want to work with?  What types of people would you need to attract to make it work?
• Do you have skills and experience to offer others with humanitarian projects and want to find someone working in a field that excites you?
• Do you have a vision for a humanitarian project but don’t know how to create a business plan nor what to do next?
• Might you prefer to work with others who have an interest in your humanitarian project, but who would prefer to team up with you?

Many roles will need to be filled

Consider that for every humanitarian project there will need to be many people working to make it a reality.  Funding is only one aspect of a successful outcome.  Man and woman do things.  Money does not.  Focus on what role you want to play, not so much on what “should be done” or what “needs to be done” for whatever reason you have in head.  Focus on what is in your heart and is something that you feel driven and passionate about.  Yes, other things need to be done and should be done, but others will feel driven and passionate to do them.  Perhaps consider that it may not be yours to do if it’s only an idea and your heart doesn’t get excited when you focus on it.

Practical tips for visioning and clarifying your dreams

Taking time to use pencil or pen and paper is a very effective way to pull ideas more into reality.  Just thinking about your ideas is useful, but consider writing them down.  For this kind of work using a pencil (very tactile) or pen and paper engages more of one’s creativity to come out from the will and feeling bodies than typing on a computer does.  Try it if you haven’t in a while.  Also, try having a writing session in a resort, under a tree or in a favourite cafe — somewhere that you feel nourished and joyful.  It can be helpful to get out of your familiar environment into an environment that is new and fresh, supporting possibility thinking outside of your normal and expected external environment.

“If I got what I am asking for would I want it?”

Every now and then, while working on your ideas/plans, ask yourself the question:  “If I achieved this result would I want it?”  Or some variation of that question.  The point being if you have a mind to get funding for a global scale humanitarian project requiring hundreds of millions of dollars would you be excited to do the work of creating and developing it if the funds for it were approved?

It may well be that a large percentage of people hoping to fund humanitarian projects are not really clear what it is that they prefer to do themselves.  What would be an exciting way for you to contribute to humanity and your community?