Many years ago when I was very ill with cancer I was gifted a perpetual flip calendar based on the New York Times bestseller “Ask and It Is Given” by Esther & Jerry Hicks. I’ve kept it and regularly update to the date. Today seems particularly meaningful especially after listening to Jon Kabat-Zinn speak on awareness, breath and mindfulness. Whenever I’ve been asked about goals I’ve sensed a resistance and resonate much more with “achieving the vibration of allowing…” Each of us is the visionary in creating our lives and here is where the Inner Development Guide makes such a meaningful contribution. If you have the time to sit with this, we’d love to hear your thoughts too.

We talk a lot about transforming our food systems. But almost no one talks about transforming the people who shape them. At first glance, farming and inner development seem worlds apart. Farming is physical, practical, rooted in soil and seasons. Inner development is mental and emotional, rooted in awareness and mindsets. Yet the irony is this: our food system will not regenerate unless the people within it do. And here’s the uncomfortable truth: we will not fix food security or soil health through techniques alone. We need different farmers AND different leaders shaping the system around them. As a farmer myself, I realised that food systems are not purely agricultural problems. They are human systems and human systems behave according to the mindsets, fears, blind spots, and values of the people inside them. This is why complex challenges (“wicked problems”) overwhelm us. We respond with roadmaps, committees, think tanks, five-year plans. These feel productive, but they often tackle symptoms rather than root causes. The cycle continues at every new government mandate or annual budget exercise. So what’s the real bottleneck? Not a lack of knowledge. Not a lack of technology. Not even a lack of land (at least not in my country Mauritius). The bottleneck, I believe, is inner capacity: - the courage to rethink entrenched models - the humility to learn from nature rather than dominate it - the empathy to consider farmers, consumers and ecosystems together - the systems thinking required to see beyond silos - the resilience to stay committed when results take seasons, not quarters. If we want to move from extractive farming to conscious land stewardship, we need to cultivate not just soil health, but human capacity: farmers who think regeneratively, policymakers who understand complexity, consumers who see value beyond price, and leaders who prioritise long-term resilience over short-term optics. The land can regenerate. The question is: can we? And how do we go about it? These last questions have been a lot on my mind lately and honestly, I am not sure I have the answer(s). For now I am mostly trying to get there by seeking partnerships (together we're stronger, right?) and consistently move conversations back to the real bottle necks stated above. Maybe that is the answer: consistency and persistence.

In the late session GPN on Dec. 3 we dug into a few very juicy questions. 1. If this polarity were trying to teach you something about how you show up in your life, what might that lesson be? 2. Where do you have agency to influence this polarity — in yourself, your relationships, or your system? 3. What’s one small shift that could change your relationship with this polarity by just a degree or two?  Would you be interested in continuing the conversation in our Hangout? Drop a 😀 in the comments if you can be there. p.s. The questions were created by @Marie Hernandez @Daria Larsson Vella and iterated for the late session by @Etrit Shkreli

Great conversation today. Here are some insights shared: Core IDG Concept (unchanged): - The sustainability crisis is fundamentally a behavioral crisis, not just a technical problem - Inner development is essential for outer change - values, perspectives, relationships need to evolve - This core mission remains the same for the next 50 years What's Changing - Organizational Structure: - Moving away from centralized startup mentality with big summits and central control - Transitioning to a distributed movement model - Central node should focus on narrative and integrity rather than operations - Suggested that leadership should be elected by the community, not controlled by founders Survey Insights (50 responses): - Strong grassroots energy with decentralized involvement - Participants across multiple roles in hubs, centers, and ambassador networks - Missing voices: strategic stakeholders, business/academic partners, co-founders Key Themes from Survey: - What brings aliveness: Human connection, local trust, small circles, clear roles, readiness for local action - What enables progress: Clear decision-making agreements, better two-way communication, cross-collaborations between communities, trust in community-led action - IDG Foundation's role: Hold integrity of IDG essence but not manage operations Here are two documents for you too look at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f3k_2awsQR5vsuieONW-fD9Fr4KxjdQAgvB-GHkFWHc/edit?tab=t.0 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16MhWjtjmCNqgF7mOZnX02UCwPNehNqfs4hkO8SiHlMU/edit?slide=id.g3ac78849a87_0_11#slide=id.g3ac78849a87_0_11

I don’t know about you but whenever I talk about IDGs, I often get « why focus on individuals when it’s corporations and government who holds the real power to bring change? ». It inspired me to write the following article. Let me know if you think it will help you in future discussions and/or whether you think an important argument is missing! https://nathalievenis.substack.com/p/why-the-sdgs-are-stuck-and-why-the?r=54pxeh