Home Improvement & Gardening

This post is our contribution to sustainablog’s Pedal-a-Watt Powered Blogathon this weekend. The long-running green blog (and new green shopping site) is publishing for 24 hours straight to raise funds for the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Northeastern Missouri. Go join the fun: read post contributions from around the green blogosphere, leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for some great green prizes, and join in the Tweetchat at #susbppb.

Our daily habits seem smaller than they actually are, because (by definition), they are something we do not give as much thought to. They are things we often do without thinking about why we do them, if we should do something else, or what their true effect is.

The truth is, our eating habits, transportation habits, recreational habits, and even simple flip-the-switch habits probably have a bigger impact on our lives, our health, the environment, the economy, and so on than anything else.

Nonetheless, if we ever do think about changing a habit, it is still a very difficult thing to do… or is it?

Changing a habit feels so hard, because we feel comfort in what we are used to. Most people, and maybe even everyone (even people who love new things, adventure, etc.), crave comfort and naturally feel more comfortable with what they are familiar with.

But if we give it some deep thought, we can look beyond comfort and look beyond what we are used to and can identify ways that we can make a huge, beneficial impact on ourselves, on our society and on our planet by changing at least some of our habits.

I think if we get into the habit of reflecting on our lives, on life in general, on our habits, it can become easier and easier to make wiser and wiser changes to our lives. It can become easier an easier to achieve the ideals that we only dream of when we are trapped in habits that do not lead to those ideals.

I suggest, make a habit of reflection & see how it changes your life.

In addition, surrounding yourself with people who will continually give you new ideas and encourage you to improve your life is probably a good idea as well.

image credit: dhammza via flickr under a CC license