First of all, all of us here at LitterProject wish you a great holiday season, full of good feeling, laughter and love!
I’ve been thinking a great deal about the concept outlined in the 7 keys: “be prepared to do the activity yourself and enjoy it” and wanted to elaborate a little on why this is so important.
As you may have experienced in life, many people can be reluctant to join you in doing something new, unless they can understand exactly what will be involved and how will it benefit themselves. The easiest way to communicate this is to simply participate in cleaning up litter yourself and revel in the feeling of 1) making an immediate difference and, 2) getting good practice at being the kind of person who makes a difference every day.
It’s funny, but it is very difficult to express how wonderful a particular feeling is– or how important a particular activity is– in words alone. At the end of the day, people tend to want a more visceral cue as to what to expect. Your happy, shining, satisfied face can indicate this and make people curious– and perhaps, even to join in.
At the end of the day, it is much more attractive (meaning will attract more participants) if you enjoy what you are doing, than if you are upset at the litterers and highlighting those feelings of anger, disappointment and disillusion.
You are in control of your attitude, and my guess is, if you find something like LitterProject appealing, you are the kind of person who enjoys making the world a better place. So… keep up the good work and don’t be shy about why you enjoy making a difference! Some may scratch their heads at your activity, but even more will join you…..
Great post! Most people will clean up litter in their own front yard – we just need people to see that their “yard” extends a little beyond what they are used to…
Every week we help make the world a better place. The more we’ve been doing this the more we enjoy it.
Picking up litter is:
1) Great exercise
2) A good reason to get outdoors and enjoy the fresh air
3) Rewarding, many passers-by go out of their way to thank you
4) Rewarding, you get a clear sense of a job well done. So often in working life we all feel our jobs are never-ending. When you head out to pick up litter you get to see the junk on the ground (before) and then look back and enjoy clean nature (after)
We’d love to have anyone join our cause, just grab a bucket, record the amount of time it takes to fill it, take pictures if possible, and email us.
Here’s our blog: http://inthebucket.wordpress.com/category/bucket-brigade/
Keep up the great work here Litter Project!
Happy Day,
Ben
Hi, gr8 post thanks for posting. Information is useful!