Photo Credit: nataliedee.com
Are you occasionally envious of your friends or family members, or even people that you’ve just met because they talk in a way that leads you to believe they have extremely good habits? Are these habits things that you seek to emulate in your life, but just cant seem to get them to stick or get them started in the first place?
After you meet these people, do you go home and say to yourself “Boy, I wish I was more like Sally, she’s very environmentally friendly and I’d like to be more environmentally friendly” Or, boy, that Jim sure seems to have his finances in order. He’s already got a 401(k), an IRA and is saving for a house. I wish I could do all of those things. Or man, that Emily is past retirement age and she’s still fit. She has been running a marathon every year for the last 22 years. I’d like to be that motivated and in that good of shape when I am her age, or even now.
So, What’s Stopping You?
How you view yourself, most likely. You dont really see yourself as that environmentally friendly shopper, and you don’t see yourself as that financially secure person, or you don’t see yourself as a health conscious person. But you want to BE that environmentally friendly person, or that person who has their finances in order, or that health nut. So, what do you do?
You go home and wish you were more environmentally friendly, and you want to help out the earth more because you think it’s important. You think, man, I’m just not like Sally, she’s so green and I’m not like that at all. Well, Sally had to give up a lot of things to be that green. She sold her car, paid more for her house and now is able to walk to work, and to daycare to pick up her child. She decided that she was tired of doing things that were bad for the earth, and now feels much happier with the choices that she’s made and the good that she’s doing. You see her now, and she’s gotten into all these green habits that buck current trends, but I surely doubt that she was born doing that. Not many people are born walking to work, or even with a desire to walk to work. Sally got to be that green because she decided it was what she wanted, and took the appropriate steps to go after it.
You go home and wish you could have your finances in order and begin saving for retirement, but you’re still scraping by to make ends meet. You think to yourself, man, it’d be hard to get where Jim is at, and I keep trying, but I just can’t seem to get there. Well, It’s not going to happen overnight. What you may not know about Jim is how much he struggled and sacrificed to get where he’s at. Maybe when you were relaxing during college, Jim was hard at work at his second job, because he knew when he was in college he wanted to retire early and began to work towards that goal. He was willing to give up some relaxation (or party) time then to be stable in the future.
Emily has been running marathons for the last 22 years, but maybe it took her 3 tries to complete her first marathon, and she was training to do that for 3 years before she actually signed up to run. However, now, as you meet her, you assume she’s been doing this her whole life. Doubtful. I dont know anyone who was born running a marathon. (plus, babies tire easily). She had to start somewhere, just like everyone else.
Well, as you’re meeting Sally, Jim and Emily, they have all been working at their goals for quite some time, and have been focused and persistent in the face of difficulties. Maybe you are just starting out trying to be more environmentally friendly, and have not yet learned what is worth the time and that you enjoy doing, and what isnt. Maybe right now you’re still trying to get out from under some student loan debt, but you’d like to be where Jim is. You’d also like to be as healthy and active as Emily, but just cant seem to find the time.
As they say “Rome wasn’t built in a day”
You need to find what your goals are and begin to work towards them. No, you’re not going to be able to go for your first run and run 26.2 miles. Maybe you can only get 2.6 miles, or 10% of the marathon. Once you have worked that 2.6 miles into your routine, it becomes easy and you can add another 2.6 miles to your run. Before you know it, you’ll be running 26.2 miles. The same goes for your savings and your green-ness. You cant get to step 10 from step one, and if you try, you’re just going to end up exhausted, most likely defeated, and definately discouraged.
Set reasonable, small goals for yourself, and before you know it, you’ll be the one telling friends about what you do to help the environment, how much money you are saving every month, and how fit you are. Remember, once you get there, pay it forward and help the person who was in your Nike’s two years ago.
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