Want to Love Your Town? Act Like Someone Who Loves Their Town.
Want to better your community but don’t know where to start? Enter It’s the Little Things: a new, weekly Strong Towns podcast that gives you the wisdom and encouragement you need to take the small yet powerful actions that can make your city or town stronger.
It’s the Little Things will feature Strong Towns Community Builder Jacob Moses in conversation with various guests who have taken action in their own places and in their own ways.
Take a moment to think about the places you’ve lived. Each place, big or small, likely had a few characteristics that initially attracted you to it. Maybe it was the mountains. Maybe it was the historic downtown. Maybe it was the not-100-degrees weather.
But as the months pass, suddenly the place doesn’t feel as happenin’ as it did when you first arrived. You’ve done all the hikes, seen all the shops, and now, you kinda miss the heat. So what do you do? Chances are, you move, encouraged by the little voice in your head telling you that you’re gonna love the next place.
You’re not alone. The average American moves 11 times in his or her life —that’s a lot. Sure, sometimes you move for a new job or to be closer to family, but most of the time, you move because you think you’re missing out on something better: a better neighborhood, a better climate, a better life.
Sadly, it doesn’t always work out that way. But there’s good news: with a new perspective and a series of small, purposeful actions, you can learn to love where you live—no matter where you live.
In this episode, I chat with Melody Warnick—author of the book This is Where You Belong: Finding Home Wherever You Are—about how you can learn to love where you live. Melody knows it can be challenging: after moving six times, she and her family eventually settled in Blacksburg, Virginia, by way of Austin, Texas. (Yep, no more mouth-watering tacos.)
It was hard—until Melody changed her perspective on how she could learn to love Blacksburg. As she writes in her book, “If you want to love your town, act like someone who loves your town would act.”
What follows is an accessible and rewarding methodology that you—whether you’re firmly settled or planning the next move—can adopt to love where you live.
For these and many more insights, check out It’s The Little Things: our new podcast by our Community Builder, Jacob Moses.
top photo via flickr