Super Eco

Photo credit: Kelly Mills

Do you have commitment issues? Hey, join the club. When I make a decision to do something good and noble and right, like engage in some healthy activity or reduce my carbon footprint, I inevitably start off all fired up, sure the whole thing is a forever deal. By day three, I'm thinking maybe this kind of thing is better left to the professionals.

And yet, I've found some really simple—and frankly, basically lame—ways to keep moving forward toward my intended goal. Now I'm going to share these pearls on a monthly basis, as Super Eco's very own Lame Environmentalist. Try not to get too choked up. If a lazy sack like me can actually stick to a plan to live a greener life, I believe anyone can do it. 

There is a lot of crossover between living a healthier lifestyle and being environmentally responsible. And even though both sometimes sound like a grim pain in the a--, I believe you can trick yourself into making small changes in your life and your outlook, so that healthy green behaviors become less dreary and more automatic:

Lame trick #1

Build habits and make them as easy as possible. The truth is, if I have to make a decision about what I am doing, it suddenly gets harder. For me, the hardest part of any positive action is the beginning—or more precisely, the time near the beginning when my enthusiasm lags and I feel all lazy—and that goes for whatever steps I'm taking. So it's crucial for me to get into a habit as quickly as possible. (I hear this also works well if you are interested in getting strung out on crack.) This is part of why I run at an ungodly hour of the morning. If I take time to consider how running is going to feel, I'll probably opt out. However, I'm lucky that I also just like routine and I'm unable to form real thoughts at ungodly hours, so this makes all things possible. I've done the same thing with composting and recycling—just made these things habitual. It sounds really, really simplistic, but if I have a second to consider my actions, I'll usually convince myself I'll do it tomorrow. If I just do it without thinking, I'm in.

Along these lines, I also plant little reminders for myself. I stick recycling bins where they are easy to reach; I keep my running shoes near the door; I have reusable shopping bags planted in every place I might need. The end result is my house looks, uh, lived in. But I can't “forget” to do stuff if I trip over my reminders daily, so there you go.

Lame trick #2

Get your kids on board. Of course, this trick only works if you are already committing the heinous environmental sin of procreating and thus overpopulating the planet, but whatever, I ain't judging you for that, I've got one of my own. And nobody gets fired up about saving the planet like the kids. While my daughter is currently obsessed with saving the seagulls at her school (not exactly a cause she's going to get widespread support for) we did turn it into a discussion about saving Mono Lake because someone told me the seagulls need it for migration or something. Do I really know? Nope, I'm too lame to do much research, but what does that matter, it's a lake and we can help save it. My kid also spearheaded the cloth napkin campaign in our household, because she's more likely to remember to save a tree than I am sometimes. And somehow it's easier to be good when your kids are watching.

Lame trick #3

Pick steps you enjoy for other reasons (a little psychological bait and switch). While I have a hard time getting fired up about something like giving up meat (gasp!), I do love to go to a farmer's market and squeeze all the produce. Likewise, I can get behind walking, running, and biking to my destinations because I'm a total fitness endorphin junkie. Basically, if I have more than one reason for doing something, the likelihood that I'll follow through is increased exponentially. So while you may not see me writing letters to my congressman about drinking water any time soon, you will totally find me selling my clothes to my local used clothing store, then taking the payment in trade credit to get recycled stuff there, because omigod, they have some really cute things.

Lame trick #4

Something is better than nothing. I have a particular aversion to stridency (as you may have guessed) and nothing irks me more than people presenting a case for never, ever using some product or engaging in some behavior because it's so environmentally damaging (or morally wrong). Black-and-white thinking can turn people off. So I follow the principle that doing a little is still better than doing nothing. Let's take the meat example—I'm not willing to forgo it, but I will reduce the number of times I eat it in a week. Just making small baby steps helps being green seem much more manageable. 

Lame trick #5

Use environmentalism to justify things you don't want to do, or get you some side benefit. "No, sorry mom, I can't fly out and see you because I'm really concerned about my carbon footprint right now." Oh c'mon, being green should have some other perk for you than just preserving the planet for future generations, right? Campaign for increased mass vacation days or reduced work hours as part of an energy-saving strategy. Look, I totally had to buy that candy from those kids outside the supermarket, because the proceeds are going to save the rainforest.

Yes, I'm so green that you can't touch this.