problems-are-opportunitues

Do you harbor any fantasies that you wish you could fulfill but don’t think you can afford?  What about guilty pleasures you’ve given up for the sake of the environment?  In my quest for a sound financial and eco-friendly future, I’ve done a lot of thinking about the things I’m “giving up.”

The truth is, I don’t really feel like I’ve given up anything.  The more I search to find something, the more I realize how much I’ve gained.

  • I quit driving my truck all over town, but I’ve gotten extra exercise and learned how to relax a little by riding my bike instead.  I’ve noticed things you don’t notice in a car and I’ve learned about bike maintenance.
  • I quit using my dryer and found out that hang drying my clothes actually saves me time because I’m not waiting around for the dryer to stop.
  • I quit eating meat every day and realized how little I was enjoying it.  Now when I eat it, I actually appreciate it.  I’ve learned about new foods and ways to prepare them.

One of the things people worry about when they decide that they really want to change is that they’ll have to give up all of the things that they love.  I worried about that too, but now that I’m on the other side of the fence, I can see what I couldn’t see before – all the opportunities.

What do you feel like you have to give up if you want to lead a sustainable life?  Is there something nagging at you that is holding you back?  What if you knew now what I learned the hard way? Would you even hesitate?

Opportunity Costs

Life is is full of opportunity costs.  When you decide to change your habits, you also decide whether to work for or against yourself.  By dwelling on what you’re “giving up” you mask everything you’re gaining in the trade off.

If you’re trying to save more money, but your standard operating procedure is to spend all your extra income every paycheck, you’re probably going to have a hard time seeing any benefits when your main focus is on the latte you’re missing out on. There’s always an upside, you just have to find it.

Why do you even want to change?

So why have you decided to do something different?  If you never had to worry about money and you didn’t care about sustainability, would you still want to change?  Are you trying to achieve something that goes deeper than the surface of these issues?  If you’re not, then maybe that’s the problem.

Money and the environment are external issues.  They’re outside influences.  Meaningful change comes from within. If you decide to rearrange your life because everyone else thinks that it ’s important, you’ll never get there because  no one else really knows what’s best for you – not like you do.

If your only goal is to minimize something about yourself that you perceive as negative, you’re destined for failure.  Without an upside, there’s no way to stay positively focused on your goal.  You have to look at what you’re getting in return.

Test, test, and test some more

Now it’s time to get focused. So you gave up your daily latte.  Now what?  You’ve got more money.  Why?  What are you going to do with it?  You have to get clear on this if you want meaningful change to occur.  Do you want to buy a house?  How many lattes do you have to give up to save up a down payment?  A hell of a lot, right?  Are there any other things sucking money from your life that you don’t notice because they do nothing for you?

Test, test, and test some more until you figure out what’s actually going to work. As the 80/20 rule applies, you’re going to try a whole bunch of things that do little for you until you eventually find something minute that sends you soaring.  Trying to find this needle in the haystack can be frustrating at first, but finding it is the difference between ‘just making it’ and totally kicking ass.

In my case, I didn’t start off each change with a solid perspective of what I was going to get out of it, but I was able to keep my mind open long enough to find them.  Sure enough, there they were.  I had to do a little tweaking along the way, but the benefit was there.

If you think there’s something in your life that you need to change, and you’re not certain what the outcome will be, try it anyway!  Action always beats inaction and if you decide later that what you’ve changed isn’t working for you, well, you know exactly what you can go back to until you try again.

Scarcity vs. abundance

In all your efforts, I think there is one thing that should never be forgotten – creating meaningful change is not about settling for less.  It’s about finding ways that less can create more - more enjoyment by forgetting about the things that don’t matter, more time by eliminating inefficiencies in your life, and more money by spending less on things you don’t care about and more on things that bring value to your life.

I gave my examples above.  What negatives are you trying to change that could be spun into more positive aspirations? How can you do more with less?

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Problems are Opportunities image by DonnaGrayson

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