Start 2022 on the "Green Foot"!
3 tips to realistically embrace an eco-driven lifestyle.
I have spent this Holiday break reflecting on the year gone by and have been thinking about goals and intentions I want to set for 2022. Because who doesn’t like an inspiring list of goals to start the New Year fresh, right?
Whatever you want to focus on a specific area of your life, health, career, family… these 3 tips will help you to create sustainable results.
1. Start where you are:
Take time to reflect and evaluate the current situation and define the direction you want to take.
My goal last year was reducing our waste at home. I started by doing a mini trash audit to know what our situation was and determine achievable goals.
How to do a mini trash audit:
Well, it is simple, arm yourself with a piece of paper, a pencil and discard any self-judgement. Keep them by the trash can, note everything you put in the trash, and categorize the type of trash between Compost, Recycling and Landfill. After a few days or a week, you will notice patterns and recurring items that go to the rubbish, so you will have a better idea of your consumption habit.
At home, we noticed a lot of plastic wrapping, from the grocery store, plastic that wraps meat, veggies…and it became our first action step.
After the trash audit you can define 1 goal to start with. Think of what options you have and what actions you will take to achieve this first goal. Don’t forget to bring the whole family on board. Organize it as a family challenge with a nice reward.
Of course, this methodology works with any kind of goal: If your focus is on your health, start by an evaluation of your diet or exercise program, notice the patterns you want to replace with new habits.
My intention this year: Become a low-waste traveler. Travelling with 3 kids has always been challenging for me, I intend to learn more techniques and teach some of it to my teenagers.
2. Educate yourself and your tribe:
January is well known for revolutionary goals, we have the opportunity to start fresh, and the level of motivation is at its highest point. But we also know than by the end of February, more that 80% of people making new resolutions will give up and move forward.
To avoid that, we have to stay motivated, which means we have to remember why we started in the first place and even anticipate obstacles to be ready when they are here.
What helps remembering the ‘whys’, is to read articles, to what documentaries, and to write down the reasons why we want to achieve that goal.
As a visual learner, I personally like to watch documentaries or videos that are related to my intention. I want to learn about it, if it’s “cooking more”, I will borrow cookbooks, and watch baking competitions and cooking class for beginners. When we start to tackle Plastic at home, we watch documentaries during family night and even have some positive conversation about it.
This helped us to stay motivated.
One key step too is to anticipate obstacles that might come into your way, write them down along with the solutions to overcome them.
As an introvert, I am not a public activist, but this year I intend to be more knowledgeable about government measures and share my learning with my community.
3. Try it!
"You will never know until you try it."
Improving our skills from one year to another, do better today than we did yesterday is a wonderful thing, but if you add a little bit of “something new” you will feel empowered.
So, learn a new skill, grow something, cultivate resilience…
I am a nature lover, but I can’t grow anything! This year I started to grow microgreen in my kitchen, and I am determined to take some gardening classes!
Hopefully, these 3 tips will help you thrive through 2022.
I wish you all a wonderful year!
Hi there!
I am Aline, Artist, eco-educator, and owner of Out Of The Box Eco-Store in Seattle-area, WA
Many of us want to reduce our plastic waste and live more sustainably, but don’t know where to start. My refillery and low waste living store supports eco-living and helps you reduce plastic waste by offering refillable home and personal care products.