How to shift your mindset and choose your future | Tom Rivett-Carnac

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2020

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When it comes to big life problems, we often stand at a crossroads: either believe we're powerless against great change, or we rise to meet the challenge. In an urgent call to action, political strategist Tom Rivett-Carnac makes the case for adopting a mindset of "stubborn optimism" to confront climate change -- or whatever crisis may come our way -- and sustain the action needed to build a regenerative future. As he puts it: "Stubborn optimism can fill our lives with meaning and purpose."

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hu.
0:07.0	Environmentalist Tom Rivett Karnak is a leading voice on the climate crisis.
0:11.3	But his talk for TED 2020, the prequel, is not just about reducing emissions.
0:16.6	It's about overcoming feelings of powerlessness and finding meaning, even when we can't control
0:21.8	certain outcomes. Tom is in southern England, not far from the dense woods where he goes for walks.
0:27.8	He gave his stubbornly optimistic and energetic TED Talk from there. Even in these painful times,
0:34.1	he really inspired me to feel more hopeful by the end.
0:40.1	Like half of humanity, I have spent the last four weeks under lockdown due to the global
0:46.1	pandemic created by COVID-19. I am extremely fortunate that during this time, I've been able to
0:52.8	come to these woods near my home in
0:54.8	southern England. These woods have always inspired me. And as humanity now tries to think about how
1:01.7	we can find the inspiration to retake control of our actions so that terrible things don't come down
1:08.0	the road without us taking action to avert them. I thought this is a good
1:12.4	place for us to talk. And I'd like to begin that story six years ago when I had first joined the
1:19.7	United Nations. Now, I firmly believe that the UN is of unparalleled importance in the world right now,
1:27.1	to promote collaboration and
1:29.1	cooperation. But what they don't tell you when you join is that this essential work is delivered
1:35.1	mainly in the form of extremely boring meetings, extremely long boring meetings.
1:42.0	Now, you may feel that you have attended some long boring meetings in your life,
1:46.1	and I'm sure you have, but these UN meetings are next level, and everyone who works there
1:50.8	approaches them with a level of calm normally only achieved by Zen masters. But myself, I wasn't
1:57.0	ready for that. I joined expecting drama and tension and breakthrough. What I wasn't
	...

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