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!
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: 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.
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.
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 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:
I am looking forward to having you on board!
Another great instalment for these thoughts, we all need to contribute and it is NEVER too late to start…
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!