This article originally appeared on Idealists in Action.
As we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this week and people across the U.S. come together to help each other and work toward solving our common problems, we'd like to pose the question: What exactly is social good?
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When my co-editor Celeste told me in November that she heard about a cool new art project we might want to blog about, I was psyched to learn more. As an aspiring creative and an Idealist interested in how individuals can beat obstacles and connect with each other to live the best possible lives, the language on TAPIN's homepage spoke to me:
TAPIN seeks to make the world a more emotionally connected place. Our community connects through interactive art installations that explore the broad spectrum of human emotions. We believe true freedom comes through exposing our most intense emotions and finding new power to remove the barriers around our dreams.
I attended TAPIN's first public event in New York last month -- titled "OUT FEAR. TAP IN: An Installation on Beating Fear to the Punch"--and founder Anne Koller agreed to let us feature the project on the Idealists in Action blog.
TAPIN's first exhibition focused on bringing fear out of the shadows.
(Photo courtesy Kathryn Weill for TAPIN)
Before our phone interview, also joined by TAPIN's head storyteller Becky Burton, I wrote out some questions to get us started:
What would you say to members of the Idealist community about how to 'unearth the clues of what drives their emotions and harness them for good,' as you say on TAPIN's website? What challenges have you faced since you started TAPIN, and what have you tried doing to overcome those challenges?
After working in social good for some time -- in favelas in Brazil, in coffee fields in Rwanda, at Davos [the World Economic Forum annual meeting] with some of the world's most powerful leaders -- I thought I would have become a diplomat by now, or work in the foreign service. I speak four languages, I have a Masters degree in public administration from Columbia... Sometimes I have guilt and ask myself why I'm not still out there.
But what I've learned is that we are unable to create true social good if our service is inauthentic, if it feels responsibility-driven and not in line with our true purpose. Social good is about aligning with what makes us truly unique and then magnifying that to serve others. Someone else might feel that working in an orphanage is their purpose -- in fact, I know lots of people do, and that's a wonderful thing -- but it's not mine.
All the world needs from you is to be a lot of what you are. Capitalize on that, drive it forward. The more you can work with your own alignment, the more powerful your contribution can be.
A friend recently said to me, 'With TAPIN, you're allowing people the opportunity to feel free and be themselves.' I don't know what else social good is, or what else I could be doing.
And this strikes me as a perfect time to redefine social impact. We -- all the people who are shaping the world today -- can redefine it for ourselves.
For people who want to take action, there's an expectation for social good that it only serves disadvantaged communities, but we think social good is for everyone. Social good is everyone finding their purpose and living their passion -- it's not only about helping people in a state of crisis. It can take the form of a very simple action that just brings a smile.
So how can each of us find our purpose? In Becky's words, how can we "get down to what excites us, what we're good at and share that with the world"?
TAPIN thinks exploring your emotions is a good place to start.
"Examining your happiness or fear can help illuminate the root of what actually makes you happy or fearful," Becky says. "It might be different than you think."
Read more about TAPIN's approach to facing emotions and making creative experiences around them on their website, watch this video about their founding, or support their goal to create four installations in 2014 on Indiegogo. If you want to start a project like TAPIN and would like some advice, feel free to get in touch with Anne at wetapin@thetapin.org. And read more about loving the bliss of everyday on Becky's website, Gus McAllibaster.
What does social good mean to you? Tell us in the comments.