It’s tough to keep up with current events and not read about climate change, loss of biodiversity, oil spills, poaching, extinctions, questionable living conditions of livestock, pesticide usage, algal blooms, and on and on. It’s overwhelming and the problems seem much larger than one person or household can possibly effect. Even if you want to try, making major lifestyle changes is very difficult for most of us and deciding which change would be worth the effort can have you facing stalled plans before you ever begin.
First, you can take a deep breath. The weight of the world is not on your shoulders. At least, not on your’s alone. That doesn’t mean your efforts won’t matter, but you aren’t going to save the world by yourself and you likely aren’t going to destroy the planet on your own either.
Second, change is unlikely to become a habit if it is too tough to keep up with it, so make it small. Consistent, manageable adjustments to your life are much better than grand gestures. For most of us anyway. Some prefer the band-aid removal method and making all the change at once suits them. Know, or learn, which kind of person you are.
Third, don’t let failure end your efforts. You may fall back to your old routines, and that’s fine. If you start bringing your own bags to the store, but often forget to put them in the car, just find a way to help you remember. There is no reason to beat yourself up over it. This is a process, like everything else in life.
To me, continuing to educate yourself on how the planet is impacted by our lifestyles is already a big step in the right direction. Turning a blind eye to your place in the world and just assuming things will go on as they always have without trouble feels like willful ignorance and can definitely come back and bite you some day.
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