In efforts to drive missions forward through the power of words, one critically important opportunity is often overlooked, especially in these days of generative AI: namely, the benefit of writing to the leader himself or herself.

Working on any of the great issues of our day is not for the faint of heart. Today’s social, environmental, and humanitarian problems are serious, urgent, and complex. And just a glance at the news makes it seem like problems are multiplying like a runaway virus.

This makes it essential that mission-driven leaders—or anyone trying to make their part of the world a little bit better—practice strategies to sustain themselves so they don’t burn out, succumb to overwhelm, or lose hope. Here is one good way to do this.

Putting your authentic voice out there in a culture that seems primed to criticize takes courage. It takes courage to talk with children about the significant issues of our day. And it takes courage to get “in the arena,” as Teddy Roosevelt said—and work to make some part of the world better. So, what does putting courageous self-expression into action look like?

Talking about hard things is how we make sense of our lives. It is how we authentically connect with others. It is how we transform challenges into experiences that can help us grow wiser and more capable. It is how we solve big problems.

One could be forgiven at this time of year for thinking that there are only a few kinds of love—most obviously, romantic love, love of family, or love of friends.

But another love also deserves to be celebrated, and those of us who identify as mission-driven individuals, changemakers, activists, volunteers, or simply concerned citizens know deeply and well.

It is a love of the world—or, in the Latin, amor mundi.

Most of us think about “mission-driven” only in the context of an organization with a social purpose or a leader who works for one.

But mission-driven cuts much deeper than that. In fact, it gets to the core of what it means to live a good life—one that sets us on a surer path to happiness than the pursuit of profit or any other kind of self-interest ever can.

There seems to be an unspoken expectation today that we absorb the facts of a changing climate and all it portends, of threats to our democracy and all that portends, and new technological innovations that, once again, pose a threat to millions of jobs … and, well, just carry on. “Chin up, my friend.” But there’s a better way.

The value of challenging that 2023 feeling that everything is urgent, everywhere and all at once.

Any changemaker with a worthy mission likely knows the feeling of being a David-sized human fighting Goliath-sized challenges.

However, the fact that this is a familiar experience does not negate the importance of creating ways to manage it effectively.

Left untended, a sense of problems being bigger than us can lead to hopelessness, cynicism, or despair. And those states can undermine what these times require: great effort, problem-solving, and collaboration.

So, what can leaders or other good people do to deal with doubts about our capacity for influence in these crisis-laden times?

Here’s a process for aligning individual purpose with organizational mission.

While courage has long been recognized as an important trait for leaders, the extreme uncertainty and challenges of our day makes it not only practical but vital that we normalize courage throughout the workplace.

Anyone who wants to lead with courage and compassion in today’s uncertain world needs to understand what gets in the way. One big obstacle is our narrow view of what leading with courage looks like. The hack? Recognize that courage is more diverse than we think.

Call it a state of poly-crises or permacrisis or just a big fat messy world, this much is clear: We are living in very uncertain times, and it is making most of us uneasy.

So, what then do we do, especially if we are among the people who wish to do our part to make the world a better place?

When problems become overly familiar to us—the kind of things we talk about year after year, and basically come to accept as part of the territory in which we live and work—it is likely time to take a fresh look.

To consider what we’re not taking into account. What we haven’t thought about that might help us begin to break through. To crack the nut. To finally make real progress instead of just talking about it.

In the case of pressing workplace problems—such as burnout, persistently high rates of disengagement, quiet (and loud) quitting, a widespread sense that what we do for work every day is lacking in meaning—it seems high time.

If there were one theme or through line to your life, what would it be?

“One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown,” said Bertrand Russell, “is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.”