Choice As A Powerful Weapon To Transform Your Lifestyle
Lifestyle is how we do things that keep us happy, healthy and engaged with the world of nature, industry, hospitality and technology. As a pattern of behaviour that defines our life, lifestyle dictates how we see the rest of the world.
People choose routines and habits that are unique to them. It is this uniqueness that defines our relationship with nature. A sustainable lifestyle, therefore, could be a way of life that values the principles of planarity boundaries. There are nine planetary boundaries that we must live within to live in harmony with nature. Three of these boundaries are already pushed.
As the first line of defence, we ought to transform our lifestyle to keep our footprints within the planetary boundaries. A term we may refer to as a sustainable lifestyle. It goes beyond the environmental aspects to economic and socio-political territories. It covers elements of a healthy lifestyle and responsible lifestyle. A sustainable lifestyle is a way we value our planet through what we eat and drink, what we wear, how we move and commute, and how we rest and work.
There are three transformational drivers which are capable of transforming our lifestyles into sustainable ones. They are within our control and these are:
- Values
- Vision; and
- Choices.
We can refer to these transformational drivers as VVC.
Values are beliefs we hold in high esteem, while vision is a mental picture of how we want the future. When you have values that are biospheric in nature, your vision and choices tend to fall within the balanced planetary boundaries. Equally important, when your vision is environmentally influenced, your preferences positively drive forward the universal quest for a clean, green and sustainable future.
Choices are a powerful weapon in this regard. You may choose to consume fair trade commodities, do responsible fishing, or have a green leisure experience. You also decide to recycle or reuse products and build a low-impact economy.
These choices are about the products and services we consume daily. From our classes, offices and homes we consume different products and services that define who we are and what we value. You may choose to consume sustainable products and services. It is your choice to offset your household’s daily carbon footprints. It is also your choice to tell the person next to you that climate change has devastating threats and tremendous opportunities and that we must act now. You can do this now while this article. Use your choices wisely!
Finally, your powerful weapon called ‘choice’ could make your lifestyle environmental friendly. But socio-economic, ecological, and political factors are at play and are unevenly distributed in how they dictate our choices and lifestyles. The choices in the global North are quite different from those of the global South. the choices in household A are also different from those of households B and C. However, a unifying theme in the climate action choice pattern is that climate change knows no borders. The quest is for a universal, clean, green and sustainable future! this is what we strive for and most do our part individually and collectively.
If you want to learn about the VVC and other lifestyle elements that promote sustainability, read our sustainable leadership series or my blog’ Qualities of Successful Sustainability Leaders’.
References
- Figure 1: Beyond the boundary. | nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/461472a assessed on Jun. 30, 2022
- A. Imchen, “A Sustainable Lifestyle is the New Normal for Environmentally-Conscious Indians,” CSR Mandate, Jun. 03, 2022. https://www.csrmandate.org/a-sustainable-lifestyle-is-the-new-normal-for-environmentally-conscious-indians/ (accessed Jun. 30, 2022).
Living for the Future 