December 19, 2022

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Unusual Sustainability New Year’s Resolutions For 2023 You Need To Know

2023 needs you. Particularly, it needs your actions to create meaningful impacts. Sustainability New Year’s resolutions serve as a focal point to make a difference. To feel empowered and imagine all the opportunities you can seize in the New Year. Sustainable principles have a bad image, but you know better. The unusual New year’s resolutions, shall help you to build a meaningful foundation to make 2023 your year. No self-improvement is needed. Sometimes all it takes to make our world a better place is to be human - compassionate and full of energy to create a future worth looking forward to.
Written by Veronika Tietz

Just before a new year begins, we reflect on the past months and wonder about what the new year has in store for us. We imagine how we can make the best out of next year and not repeat the same decisions which impacted us negatively. Impact is a meaningful term for 2023, not only personally but globally. Hopefully, more people will pursue sustainability in everything they do in 2023. What does it mean to be sustainable? In this article, I want to introduce you to unusual but powerful sustainability New Year’s resolutions that are easy to implement and will benefit you and the planet.

I want to share a personal thought journey of doubts and realisation

For a long time, I felt that whatever I do to be more sustainable is not enough to tackle the world’s challenges. I felt hopeless and anxious. What can an individual do? By all means, I cannot save the forests, oceans, animals and people suffering from my individual choices. Although I learned about sustainable living principles and implemented them such as recycling, avoiding plastic, becoming vegetarian/vegan, using eco-friendly transportation etc., it felt like I am not doing enough. The Earth is burning and me with her.

During my Master’s in Sustainable Food Systems in Sweden, I learned about systems thinking and how interconnected our globalised world is. My knowledge and skills in sustainable systems expanded and I broadened my mind with many sustainability concepts and principles. Nonetheless, it took me a while to understand that sustainability is not the problem of being too complex, inscrutable or expensive. The underlying problem is: Unsustainability is the norm.

Nonetheless, I still felt like an important puzzle piece was missing. Do you know that feeling when something is on the tip of your tongue, but you can not name it? Until I came across Paul Hawken – an environmentalist, entrepreneur, author and activist – who switched on the light bulb in my head: Our world’s challenges are human, not science or technical problems. 

How can we make our world a better place when all we know are the broken systems we grew up in and continue practising?

We – as human beings – need to reimagine how we want to continue living on our only habitable planet. We need to become solutions providers to the challenges while reimagining our future. Moreover, we cannot achieve a better future if we are not aware of our role, our strengths and the diversity we bring to the pool of life. Change starts within us. 

It is time that we start taking care of what takes care of us: the Earth’s natural systems. We need to reconnect with what it truly means to be human. Thankfully, there is no size fits all solution thus every single one of us can find a role to contribute to sustainability.

Our global challenges will not disappear because we swap products with ‘more sustainable ones’. Our global challenges will disappear if we imagine a future worth looking forward to – in line with what keeps us alive.

That is what I want to dedicate my time to in 2023 and beyond – to create a future worth looking forward to. This is my unusual, sustainable New Year’s resolution. I hope you will become part of the journey!

New Year Sustainability

Unusual, but sustainable New Year’s resolutions for 2023

We got some groundwork to do! It entails laying a foundation for a nurturing sustainability New Year’s resolutions mindset. For this reason, I wrote this article I recommend you read before continuing with this one: Do Your Sustainable New Year’s Resolutions Pass The Test? Find Out More… 

The foundation work you will gain will be beneficial for you to imagine and create 2023 worth looking forward to.

Reimagine Sustainability Pinterest

Reimagine Sustainability Pinterest: My Favourite Pins

 

Let us begin with the unusual, sustainability New Year’s resolutions!

Be kind to yourself and take care of your well-being.

You cannot help others if you neglect your own needs. Furthermore, looking after yourself first is not a selfish or egotistical act. It is simple self-love. However, it is sad to see how many people undervalue themselves although they are the most beautiful souls. 

What has helped me to distribute my energy efficiently is to take as much energy as needed for myself. Whatever amount of energy is left, I can spend on others. 

Self-care is not only about your mental well-being. Equally important is your physical well-being which benefits from self-love practices via healthy eating habits and physical exercise.

Inspiration for Self-Care resolutions:

  • Practice gratitude
  • Meditate
  • Adjust your diet
  • Take care of your sleep routine
  • Implement a morning and evening routine
  • Plant something
  • Do more of what brings you true joy
  • Join a sports club
  • Start journaling
  • Readjust your daily routines

 

Those tips are vague for the reason that every single one of us is different. As already mentioned, there is not one size fits all solution. You need to take matters into your own hands and decide what you can turn into resolutions that will make a positive difference for you in 2023.

Related: 

From Hardie To Softie: 7 Soft Skills Which Will Change The World For Good

Practise empathy daily

Our societal structures benefit those who are the loudest and press their agenda upon others. Contrary, soft skills fall by the wayside and are not rewarded, although they care for the general well-being. Empathy is a widely known skill, but it does not occur in practice as much as it should. 

When we put ourselves into someone else’s shoes, a different world reveals itself in front of us. Not only can we improve our relationship with others, but we can also respectfully equalise differences and achieve our goals that benefit everyone involved.

Tips to cultivate empathy as your New Year’s resolution:

  • Listen with the intention of hearing
  • Spark your curiosity about strangers by speaking to people outside of our familiar social circle
  • Challenge your prejudices and discover similarities
  • Volunteer
  • Seek out new experiences
  • Acknowledge your biases

 

Related:

Challenging Your Assumptions And Beliefs: 7 Effective Approaches

Do what makes you happy

As old as this advice is, it has never been more valid than now. With the rising cost of living, we have fewer possibilities to spend money to fill the little time we have. Although it is a very stressful prospect, see the opportunities to learn how to spend your time with less but more joy. 

Accordingly, collect experiences, not things. Capitalistic societies are so obsessed with buying stuff they do not need while wasting money and time to experience life. 

Focus Here

From my article 7 Powerful Ways To Focus On What Is In Your Control

Here I do not have specific New Year’s resolution suggestions for you because you are in the best position to know or find out what makes you happy. 

Involve your loved ones more

Loneliness is worse than one cigarette. Accurately, loneliness is as bad as smoking 15 cigarettes. Although we live in a globally, digitally connected world, we have never been so disconnected as a human species. The world’s challenges cannot be solved single-handedly, thus getting in the habit of connecting with others supports our social competencies.

New Year resolutions suggestions:

  • Visit your family more often
  • Set-up (bi)-weekly meetings with your friends
  • Find a volunteer group
  • Sign-up for a sports club
  • Use your holidays to help out in a sanctuary

Learn skills to develop your independence

Being the master of disaster is only half as bad when you know how to reverse the damage. Learning how to repair, mend, cook, tinker, sew etc. boosts your confidence. 

Moreover, if you live in an urban area try to learn how to grow plants on a small scale. You might perceive yourself as someone without a green thumb, but growing plants is a simple skill you can learn. It is not hocus pocus, growing plants and taking care of them enables you to care more.

Learning a new sport also falls under this category. Being more active has already been touched upon, but it is good to repeat the advice that can be life-changing by simply moving your body.

Start one new tradition

Across ‘western’ societies, there is a steady decline in cultural practices which get replaced by self-damaging practices like binge drinking, social media addiction, emerging right groups, etc. 

Culture is the glue that keeps us together. Without culture, we have less stability in life to successfully free ourselves from unpleasant situations. Dig out old traditions which are based on values you are comfortable with. You can practise them with your loved ones by making them a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or yearly habit. Planning something to look forward to while experiencing new ways of cultural practices broadens your horizon.

Ideas for New Year’s new cultural traditions:

  • Ask your grandparents or older people about their traditions
  • Engage in a tradition of a different culture
  • Learn a language and immerse yourself in their cultural practices
  • Take up a new activity with your family or friends
  • Learn to practise gratitude from different cultures

 

One of the oddest cultural practices I learned from my dear friend during my studies in Sweden, is the Catalan Christmas tradition of the pooping log. Bizarre but fun 🙂

Reconnect with nature

You cannot help something you do not understand. Our natural world is a complex but magical life system that needs to be explored, admired and loved. Due to the alarming news by multiple scientists about the natural collapse, you need to understand that you are part of it.

Although the news looks grim, there are millions of people who are dedicating their time to take care of what takes care of us. There are so many ways to include environmental protection in your unusual New Year’s resolutions. Every part of the world is so unique that I recommend you to search for environmental groups nearby.

You are more than welcome to share your findings in the comments for others to explore!

Use social media to show what matters to you

Although you might want to reduce your social media usage, I recommend detoxing it in the first place. So when you fall back into the SoMe space, you have at least a positive feed waiting for you.

Sustainability definition

Instagram @resustainimagine

Moreover, spread your ideas of what you want your future to look like. You are more than welcome to follow me on my SoMe pages, where I will regularly post about topics on a future worth looking forward to – of course, paired with many insights from the sustainability space.

Reimagine Sustainability Community Facebook

Reimagine Sustainability Facebook

Continuously imagine a future worth looking forward to

You see, sustainability New Year’s resolutions do not have to be about self-optimisation. The social world has taken a weird turn, disconnecting us from what really matters. Therefore, real change starts with us because we cannot change the world if we are not capable of the skills which make a difference.

Sustainability is portrayed as something complex and expensive. Let me tell you that the opposite is the case. Sustainability is about exploring all those opportunities to create wonderful lives – for everyone. You cannot explore those opportunities if you continue practising habits imposed by a system that harms people and the Earth.

That makes sense, right? 

I hope you found this article helpful to support you to reimagine your unusual sustainability New Year’s resolutions which will make a difference. You are more than welcome to share them with us in the comments!

If you need more support in defining your sustainability New Year’s resolutions, I highly recommend you get your hands on this beautifully designed Vision Board Planner. The provided links will bring you to my ReSustainability Etsy shop:

2023 Vision Board

My 2023 Vision Board Planner

I am looking forward to having you on board!



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It’s not easy being a human in a world which seems to crumble around us. Finding encouraging and helpful support to tackle our world’s crisis is not easy. Many already say that we can’t achieve Sustainability anymore. What nonsense! In this article, I want to show you 10 simple reasons why we can still achieve Sustainability. Even better, it won’t be as difficult as you might think. Our world is complex, but not everything needs to be hypercomplex. Sometimes the simple things in life will bring us where we should be. Curious? You’re more than welcome to continue reading.

7 Powerful Ways To Focus On What Is In Your Control

We feel good when we can freely spend our time on what matters most. Understandably, we get frustrated if we are not in control of our precious time. Control is a relevant topic and refers to control over others and control of yourself. The latter is a competency that contributes to your mental and physical health. Unfortunately, we don’t have much control over our lives as we have to stick to working schedules, household chores and other obligations. Acknowledging what is outside of our control and not letting it consume us is an essential step to gaining sovereignty.

Embrace New Beginnings: The Power of Starting Over

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Fostering Ecoliteracy: The Love That Keeps On Giving

Ecoliteracy is a widely unknown term. In view of the environmental challenges we are already experiencing, ecoliteracy needs to become the forefront of educational strategies. Our existence is bound to well-functioning natural systems. It is not only about our existence, it is also about our way of life. I find it heartbreaking how our natural world suffers because of the societal systems we call the norm. Although it might sound too spiritual to some, societies need to reconnect with the natural environment. Developing a sustainability mindset is the solution to understanding your role in the natural world.

From A Carbon Tunnel Vision To A Holistic Collaboration Approach

Sustainable development has a very carbon-heavy taste to it. It has already been recognised that we need to move beyond the carbon-only approaches; to achieve effective, sustainable outcomes. What we experience globally is a Carbon Tunnel Vision. It’s a clever play on words to highlight our selective attention on mostly Net-Zero Goals. The Carbon Tunnel Vision framework aims to open our eyes to other human and natural crises. Global warming is only one part of the interconnected crises. Let’s not get trapped and miss our chances to fight our challenges effectively. I want to show you how easy this can be by taking a more holistic and collaborative approach.

Breaking Boundaries: Reimagining Sustainability For A Thriving Future

Discover the wisdom of nature: resilience in the face of challenges, interconnectedness that binds us all, efficient resource utilisation, adaptability to thrive, and regeneration for a sustainable future. Let nature’s lessons inspire you. You can reimagine a future that draws from the timeless wisdom of nature, forging a path towards sustainable transformation. Unlock your transformative power of nature’s wisdom and embark on a journey towards a thriving and resilient planet. That is all we need: a planet that has the capability to regenerate itself and the ability to flourish in difficult situations. It is that simple.

Why I Started My Reimagine Sustainability Blog?

Sustainability is what I dedicate to my life. For too long, I felt helpless and increasingly annoyed by news about climate change, biodiversity loss, food crises, rising mental health issues etc. It’s a lot to deal with for a normal human being. But I always believed in Sustainability, it simply makes sense to me to adapt to the Earth’s systems. Our societies developed on ideals of exploitation and destruction, but good and kind people have a voice now. Thank you, internet! It doesn’t take much anymore to become the change you want to see in this world.

Sustainability Thinking: The World Is Ending. What Are You Taking With You?

In view of the many crises we need to overcome, it can feel quite daunting. Too many think they do not have enough of what it takes to make our world sustainable. It might be true because they think in a way that does not encourage action. Thinking differently has been frowned upon for too long. But that’s what we need: the diverse capabilities of all human brains. Sustainability thinking can become a successful pathway to deal with environmental issues, social unrest and economic collapse. A sustainable future depends on the way you imagine it. Make the most out of it!

Can The Tragedy Of The Commons Be Solved With Economic Degrowth?

Change is inevitable. What should we do when a number of people cling to a system that is harmful but the norm? Economic degrowth is mocked by the corporate world and governments. Although it seems irrational to continue an economic system that is based on exploitation and destruction, there is little openness to rethink our global economies. Does a remedy exist? Imagine what a future that favours prosperity and sustainable development could look like. I have difficulty imagining a sustainable global economy. Let me introduce you to degrowth and the tragedy of the commons. Two concepts not paired before!

The 10 Most Pressing Sustainability Challenges Of The 21st Century

Environmental, social and economic sustainability challenges are more diverse than we are aware of. We can not simply focus on one challenge (climate crisis). Instead, we need to address all the various challenges of the 21st century if humanity wants to experience the 22nd century. Our future depends on the actions we take today. Long-term sustainability goals will help us to create a livable future. Nonetheless, it is not wrong to be aware of what the hurdles actually are. Therefore, I collected the 10 most pressing challenges of the 21st century to give an overview of where urgent action is needed.

2 Comments

  1. Jeanine

    Another great instalment for these thoughts, we all need to contribute and it is NEVER too late to start…

    Reply
  2. nia

    This is a great list! I’d really like to start reconnecting with nature and this is great motivation to also think about potential sustainability outcomes! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

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