A lot of us come to DAOs in search of something more, something better. We had enough of the default, meat suit corporate attitudes. Or maybe we simply didn't fit into that corporate life.
Regardless of the more surface reasons, the deeper reasoning a lot of us tend to turn to DAOs is health. CorpoRAT life, the 9-5 grind on the hamster wheel has worn us out. Some of us may have had more patience to stick it out longer than others.
When we arrive at our first DAO, it's new, it's exciting. Depending on the size of the DAO it can be pretty overwhelming.
One thing that's consistent is when we start finding our footing in this space, we tend to dive headfirst into more than we can chew. This leads to burnout, overwhelm, contributors, dropping off. I get it, how do you justify "time away" in a space that's 24/7 and doesn't acknowledge "downtime?" Being plugged in DAO 24/7 becomes more addictive than mindlessly scrolling social media. At least within a DAO you're getting more visibility, more work, and increasing your net worth, yea?
This is where we hit the dichotomy. In order to speed up, we need to slow down. Over time due to the constant bustle of metaverse life, our performance starts to decline. We have a hard time justifying stepping away because we're falling further behind. We're so engaged and plugged in the FUD creeps in every night before bed. Will I miss something important? What if someone needs me?
It's understandable why we feel this way. It's the default living to creep back into our minds. Taking it a step further, it's the "no down-time" mentality that fuels the engine. Sure, that was maybe great once upon a time when we were factory workers.
These days the world is more open, collaborative, transparent, fun. We have global teams. We have a lot that traditional organizations can't compete with. The keywords here are "global teams."
Do you know what that means? We can operate 24/7, 365 seamlessly. What's more, we can do it in a way that doesn't ask anyone to compromise their health.
A great leadership principle to tie this together is "cover & move." Okay, it's actually military, however, it has some great applications IRL and with our teams. In this case, we have people all over the world, it's relatively easy to ensure positions are filled while people take personal time.
Taking it a step further, we all have our peak hours, meat suit responsibilities and other lifestyle ambitions. We came to this space to be able to fulfill our passions and desires. Leaning on our team and establishing our systems to accommodate life's demands with our personal health goals is key.
Some potential ways to put health front and center of a DAO:
- Mental health meetups
- Vibe checks
- Fun events - games, trivia, scrabble, DND
- Member benefits
- Incorporating nutrition, fitness, and other health-based initiatives into the community & culture
Together we can make a statement and show we actually care about the members and various people lifting our communities up. By promoting a culture of health, wellbeing, we are creating a more fun and engaging environment.
We start evolving beyond monetary compensation and start taking a more holistic view regarding our "wealth." If we don't have our health our wealth isn't going to last very long. This change comes from within.
This change comes from lifting each other up and encouraging each other to simply be 1% better and stronger every day in every way.
Health and mental health aren't heavy or hard conversations, they don't have to be. Positivity is contagious. A rising tide raises all ships.
