The Human Agenda

How to make the decision and do what needs to get done

May 28, 2025

Dear community,

The kids and I caught a cold this past week, and we’re all playing catch-up on sleep. Therefore, the window when I normally write (the mornings before they wake up) has been lost. So, I’m cheating a bit this week and sharing one of the chapters from my book. It’s about the power of just taking a leap and letting the decision guide the way.

When it comes to co-creating a new world, we need to stop getting stuck in indecision and just go for it. Let’s take the leap, let’s say yes to change. The rest will simply follow.

You can get the book here.

Chapter 33: The Human Agenda

When I looked out the window that morning, the rain didn’t seem so bad. A little trickle, maybe, but not something worth fussing over, so I decided to skip the jacket. It was early fall, and the temperatures were still pleasant enough for a light sweater. I had heard that flood warnings were in effect across Manhattan, but a downpour didn’t seem to have started yet, so I decided to play it bold. I could survive a walk in this weather.

However, when you live fifteen floors off the ground, you can get a little…what should I say…detached from reality. When I stepped out onto the street five minutes later, the pavement was glimmering in the streetlight as heavy drops hit the already deep puddles. I knew I wasn’t dressed for the task. I was going to get wet—drenched cat kind of wet.

I had a few options: A) I could go back up and change into something more appropriate, B) I could call off my morning walk altogether and wait for a better day, or C) I could say screw it and just go for it anyway.

I didn’t feel like taking the elevator all the way back up to grab a jacket, so that wasn’t an option. I am not a quitter, so giving up on my walk altogether was also out of the question. Instead, I chose option C. I decided to embrace the rain and just go for it. I would get wet, but so what? I plugged in my music, buckled my fanny pack underneath my two layers to keep my phone dry, and dove out into the rain.

It didn’t take long before my sweater got heavy and my ponytail was sticking to the back of my head—it was raining hard. Understanding I wasn’t going to be out for too long before I had to turn around, I picked up the pace and turned my walk into a run. I don’t run often. (I blame it on bad knees.) But this run was glorious. I felt crazy, wild, and free as a bird, and the streets being close to empty just made me feel even cooler for being out. Sometimes it’s fun to be crazy alone, to think you’re the only one strange enough to do this.

I was higher on life than I had been in a long time. I kept running, and as I was passing through lower Manhattan’s Battery Park, get this, Leon Russell’s version of Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” randomly came on my playlist. I don’t know about you, but that’s what I call magic. The synchronicity made me actually laugh out loud, and suddenly, I felt as if I were in a movie. Since the rain had already drenched the flat NYC pavements, I had to jump puddles as I moved along, making the run feel like a true adventure. Not for a second did I regret having dived out into the rain.

Finishing off by the Hudson River, I paused to snap a selfie with the Statue of Liberty behind me when something quite profound hit me. At that very moment, high on endorphins and drenched to the bone, I realized this was what life was all about. This commitment to just doing it is what it all comes down to. That is our human agenda—we simply have to say yes to action and change.

Did you know that we daydream 30 to 50 percent of our days?*

When we do, we’re able to replenish our brain calories and save them for the important decision-making stuff later. Believe it or not, making choices takes a lot of brain calories. So much, in fact, that if we have too many choices to make, the choices themselves start to stress us out and take away from the value of life. I’m sure you’ve experienced this when choosing a dish off a way-too-crowded menu or having to pick the jeans with the perfect fit. With so many options, how do you know you’re making the absolute best choice?

*Source: BBC

What hit me at that moment in the rain was that sometimes the best thing we can do is stop being so damn meek and just dive right in. We have to stop second-guessing everything and simply take bold action. Once we do, the choice will feel obvious, and everything from there on will come from a place of possibilities and growth.

I decided to go for a run in the rain and experienced magic. As a world, I think we have to dive headlong into change. Period.

We have to trust what comes next. We have to leave the comfort of our old lives and find ourselves in the curious search for something better.

It might seem both silly and scary at first (why leave something we know to be good?), but as soon as we take that plunge, everything will be clearer.

When you’re already soaking wet, there’s no more deciding whether or not it was a good decision; you just put that smile on your face and run.

“We see global warming, not as an inevitability but as an invitation to build, innovate and effect change, a pathway that awakens creativity, compassion, and genius. This is not a liberal agenda, nor is it a conservative one. This is the human agenda.”
— Paul Hawken

You can get the book here.