Sustainable lifestyle is often thought of as something that consists of growing your own vegetables and reducing one’s carbon footprint. But actually sustainable lifestyle is something that is much closer to home.
Sustainability as such is a trendy subject right now. But it mainly focuses on businesses operating more sustainably. Sustainable lifestyle isn’t quite the same thing. Have you ever spared a thought for how sustainable your lifestyle, excluding all material things, actually is?
To spare a thought to the matter we must first be clear on what ‘sustainability’ is. Sustainability is ‘the ability of something to maintain or “sustain” itself over time‘.
On a personal level that translates to us looking after ourselves, which in the long run literally enables us to add actual years to our lives.
If you look at the way you live life, would you say your current lifestyle can sustain you? For how long can it sustain you? These may sound like bizarre questions, but hang in there!
Let me ask you 3 simple questions that can help you determine whether you lifestyle is on track to sustain, or to ruin you.
Sustainable Lifestyle – 3 Questions For You
I read a snippet of an article that described how dating should be looked at through the same lens as work: it should be executed effectively in order to achieve the best possible results.
In practice the article recommended booking in 1-2 dates each week and carry them out in a routinely manner until one hits ‘the jackpot’.
Does this sound like a sustainable way to date for you? How long could you carry on going on sub-standard dates and putting quantity before quality like this? I know I wouldn’t last a week!
But it got me thinking about the ways we are raised as women. And how that way definitely doesn’t support a sustainable lifestyle. So, let’s get to it: these 3 questions will help you determine, whether your lifestyle can sustain you or not.
1. Do you ‘execute’ life?
The aforementioned article was the perfect example of how we women are taught to lead our lives. We must execute life to the highest standards set by other people. And still we won’t be good enough. Do you recognize yourself as one of those people?
One of those people who:
- set goals to reach
- make plans for effectively reaching those goals
- carry out those plans and get disappointed when things didn’t go exactly as they planned
- set new goals and make new plans to prove to oneself that one IS good enough.
Sound familiar? Most online coaches swear by setting goals and making strategies, and that’s all good in business. But can it actually be applied to living a good life?
Let’s be honest here, of course society doesn’t want that bubble to burst. It must be so lovely to keep women “in their place”, never content, always doubting their own capabilities.
But shouldn’t we all know by now that each and every one of us is responsible for our own wellbeing and happiness?
True balance comes when we stop chasing perfection and start honoring our needs—whether that means redefining success or simply taking a moment to soothe and nourish a dry head with a scalp moisturiser. Prioritizing self-care isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity.
It’s up to each and every one of us to realize that while work may be executed, life sure shouldn’t be! Life is what happens outside of work. It’s the time when we can do things exactly as we want to do, not as other people say. Sustainable lifestyle is free of goals and strategies.
2. Do you make decisions based on what other people might think?
This is a biggie! Because I know for certain that most of us can honestly answer this questions “Yes, yes I do.”
- Some of us buy clothes according to current trends to fit in with ‘the cool kids’.
- Some of us cook and eat seasonally because we were told that that’s what you should do.
- Some of us get into relationships with people we don’t really care about because that’s what society expects of us.
Sounds grim, doesn’t it? We know that following other people’s opinions doesn’t often make us happy, but we crave acceptance so much that we do it anyway.
But as long as we allow this sort of outside influence determine how we live our lives, we’re not taking responsibility of our own wellbeing.
And if we don’t take responsibility of our own happiness, or our own wellbeing, can we afford to complain about not being satisfied with life? Sustainable lifestyle is not a responsibility we can outsource to the society or some strangers.
It’s a choice each of us must make every day: prioritizing our own wellbeing.
3. Do you waste your energy?
This is the trickiest one. If we really think about it, we can all name multiple energy vampires in our lives immediately. Many of us have friends, family members and/or colleagues that make us feel worn out just by being around.
While family members can be difficult to avoid, one could make a conscious effort to try and avoid meeting those “friends” who do not bring much, if any value to our lives. Things get more complex, though, when we consider the biggest ‘energy thieves’.
Things like social media, news, work, etc. create massive amounts of stress. And stress is a major factor in shortening our life expectancy by more than 2 years.
But how do we avoid those? The way to start is to understand that stress is often caused by us giving away our power. What do I mean by this? This may hurt but I’m gonna be honest:
- By following accounts on social media that make you feel bad/inadequate/guilty/ugly, you give the power over your own energy to those accounts. Unfollow them all, and take the power back!
- By constantly watching the news, even though you know they make you anxious because the world is falling apart, you give the power over your energy to things you can’t control. Accept that THIS MOMENT is the only one you can control and take your power back by focusing on just that.
- By settling to an uninteresting, even abusive relationship or a job you give away your power over your energy and happiness. Settling never made anyone happy! But if society’s expectations are the most important metric to you, should you even be happy?
Final Thoughts
Sustainable lifestyle isn’t about growing your own vegetables. It’s not about anything material. It’s all about wellbeing, mental and physical. When we feel mentally and physically well, our bodies can recover from stressful periods in life quicker and more efficiently.
And in the long run that is what will make all the difference, because that is what will add years to our lives. You wouldn’t want to fail at that, would you? Just remember, sustainable lifestyle isn’t a goal you can make, or a strategy you can execute. ♥
