This is about people who think in the long term. I'm looking for people who have done a fundamental change in their lives as a result of thinking about the long term horizon: at least 20 years, but if anyone is thinking in terms of centuries, so much the better!
The change can be moving to a completely different place, a radical career change, a complete overhaul of their home, or any other significant lifestyle change. The conditions are:
- The change must be significant. Sorry, changing all your lightbulbs doesn't count.
- The benefits of the change must be mainly long term. It's fine if the change has some short-term benefits, but there must be easier and simpler ways of getting those same short-term benefits.
- The future you are expecting sounds like a real possibility. If everybody around you is telling you that your ideas about the future are plain crazy, I'm probably not interested. However, if everybody but one or two people think you're crazy, I am interested.
- You live within 100 miles of London. That's because the interviews will be face to face and that's as far as I'm travelling.
If you would like to be interviewed for the book, please contact me at:
Drop me a few lines telling me about your change and why you did it. I'm expecting the book will contain around 50-60 stories, which means I'll be interviewing around 100 people.
I've picked this theme because I'm fascinated by the contrast between the current trends towards sustainability and how short-term most of our goals usually are. How can anyone live sustainably when they aren't thinking of the long term in their day-to-day life?
I don't care if your change doesn't have anything to do with the environment, I'm more interested in sustainability as a concept that applies to anything, from finances to family life, meaning simply "considering the long term, so that what we are doing now won't harm our chances of a good life in the future for us or for our children." This used to be the common mindset before the Industrial Revolution. Cathedrals were started by people who knew they wouldn't see them finished in their lifetimes. But at some point this mindset was lost.
I'd like to meet today's cathedral-builders, because they will lead by example tomorrow's sustainable children.
Note: This is a freelance job, in no way connected to The Guardian newspaper.
