The past few years I have gone through some perspective changes. These didn’t happen overnight and I still have a long way to go, but these changes have given me a great chance to step back and really evaluate myself and my choices.
One of the first changes I started to make was only purchasing cruelty free makeup. From there, I moved to learning more about corporate social responsibility and how I tied into that larger picture. I also was looking for a way to not be so overburdened because I felt I was not able to measure up to my own expectations. Turns out those expectations were wildly unaligned to what I wanted anyway.
These mindset changes have really helped me take a step back and appreciate what is more important. Depending on what is important to you will shape what it looks like for you.
1. Rethink Old Habits
There are activities and tasks I do on a daily basis that I often don’t think twice about. Habits are an interesting thing because they are what is behind us getting things done, whether those are good or bad things. Many habits I am used to doing are a complete waste of time.
A recent example that comes to mind is my nail polish habit. For the past 4-5 years I have heavily used nail polish in a feeble attempt to get me to stop picking at my nails. I looked at the pros and cons. Pros were that my nails looked good for about 2 days out of the week. The cons included time spent painting, increased stress when they didn’t look great, and all this nail polish was not great for the environment anyway. In the end, no one cares that my nails are painted and now I just realized that I didn’t care either. My recent challenge for myself has been to stop painting my fingernails. With just this change I have gotten back at least an hour to two hours each week.
If you are looking to create a new habit, I encourage you to check out Sustainable Vegan’s video How Tiny Habits Can Change Your Life. We tend to overcomplicate bringing ourselves closer to our goals. I think we could all use some simplifying.
Questions I ask myself to evaluate my habits:
- Do I even need to do this?
- Does this make me happy?
- Is there a better way to do this?
2. Spend Time More Wisely
I am a self-declared “busy person”. My to-do lists are ridiculous and look to be made not for a robot butler if I had one. I would feel incredibly guilty to hand my to do list off to someone else, but yet I create them for myself. When I am honest with myself, I know I let things sneak into my time that I don’t care about.
In the video from Sustainably Vegan I mentioned above, one tip she had is to not create to do lists. Note the one thing you need and once you finish that, find the next thing. This helps us not waste time making the to do list, stressing about the to-do list, and managing the to do list. It also helps in dealing with procrastination because you don’t see the list and get too overwhelmed to start.
I am not going to lie, I love my to-do lists. While I use them as a tool to calm my anxiety, I also think they are a source of my anxiety as well. I am challenging myself to start avoiding them.
A big elephant in the room for many of us is social media. I have not perfected this by any means. I fall down the social media hole just like everyone else. Now I am very specific on who I follow on Instagram, Youtube, etc. I have gone through and pulled out people and companies that make me feel like I need to buy something I am not interested in. I am now following people that inspire me and sometimes even challenge me. This way when I am scanning what I missed, it isnt filled with stuff that doesn’t apply to me, saving me time.
A realization I have come to recently is that I am a horrible multitasker. I used to think I could easily juggle multiple things at once and do them all very efficiently. I was comically wrong. Sure, I can have multiple things that I can get done by bouncing between them, but doing small pieces of each of them and flipping between multiple ones is so inefficient and stressful.
Questions I ask myself to evaluate how I am spending my time:
- Is this honestly helping me relax and recharge?
- Does what I am doing bring me closer to finishing my goal?
- Does this benefit me and my family?
- Now I ask myself if what I am doing is getting me closer to my goals, values, and my overall happiness.
3. Spending Less on Frivolous Things
I used to wander into Target with no plan. I used to online shop with no end goal in mind. Whether it was from a bad day or just wanting to relax and find something nice that I could add to my home “collection”. I think it is important to point out that I wasn’t buying things to build a better home or life for myself, I was simply adding to a collection of things.
I found myself consumed with what the next item was that I was going to purchase. That new shirt, that new gadget, the new car. Big and small purchases consumed my thoughts and what I thought would make me happy.
I began to take a step back and evaluate why I even wanted those things. Was I buying the new shirt just because it was new? Did I even need one? Did I need that new phone? Does it do something significantly better than what my current gadget already does?
In evaluating this habit, it wasn’t getting me any closer to what was important to me. I still have student loans and if my car broke down, I would be sitting with another car loan. I am not financially free by any means and even if I was those random items are not helping me in anyway.
A big example of this for me is my cell phone. I used to replace my cell phone as soon as I paid it off or was eligible for a new phone. I would get the new phone, be excited for about one week, then the excitement would wane and I again found myself looking forward to the next phone. Phones are expensive, the features don’t change to a huge extreme to require you to upgrade every few years, and they take huge amounts of resources to create that don’t recycle that well.
If you are getting bored with your phone, here are some quick tips I recommend to curb excitement until your phone breaks and you need a new one.
- Clean up your phone. One of the biggest things people are excited for with a new phone is installing just what they want and not having all the left-over junk. You can do it on your current phone too.
- Change up the background of your phone, weird, but it makes it feel new.
- Replace the case. While I don’t recommend doing this all the time, if you have had your phone for a few years, try a Pela case. These Pela cases are compostable and way better than a plastic case. Replacing the case is way less resources then replacing the phone, plus the new feel will feel like it is a new phone.
Questions I ask myself when it comes to buying new things:
- Do I actually need this item?
- Do I see myself keeping this item for a long time?
- Does this satisfy a need?
- Could I borrow or rent this from someone instead?
- Am I buying this to impress someone else?
- Am I buying this as a status symbol? – Side note, if you feel you have to buy something to impress someone else, are they worth impressing?
- Will it actually make my life easier?
- Is it worth repairing if it breaks?
- Is it worth all the materials and resources it took to make it?
- In the future, will I want to take the time to properly pass it along to someone else or dispose of it properly?
4. Be More Curious
As humans, we tend to hold sterotypes on many things, without even realizing it. Whether we put different people or ideas on a pedistal or tear them down and dismiss without a second thought. We do this in order to avoid considering every angle of every person or idea we came across.
Sterotypes: A preconceived and oversimplified idea of the characteristics which typify a person, race, or community which may lead to treating them in a particular way.
I like being open to other perspectives even though it sometimes makes me uncomfortable. When I find myself deeply rooted on a particular topic, I try to find out more on the topic. This does not mean I need to change my opinion. It is an exercise to bridge the gap between myselves and others. The worst that could happen is that I spend some time exploring a topic. The best is that I learn something new and grow from that.
Whatever makes you uncomfortable is your biggest opportunity for growth.
Bryant McGill
One thing I like to do, is to follow people that introduce new ideas to me. I really appreciate people for their differences especially when those differences clearly bring themselves happiness and do no harm to themselves or others.
Overall, these are some ideals that I consider on a daily basis. They are helping me to work toward what makes me happy through learning and trying new things. If you have any tips or resources to share, I encourage you to drop them in a comment below!
Be kind to yourself and the planet.
Resources:
- Sustainably Vegan
- Pela – Use code GreenerIntentions for 10% off your purchase.
**The Pela URL link on this page are affiliate links to Earthhero. If you are uncomfortable using them, please fee free to search online for Pela Cases. I recommend purchasing from EarthHero.
