Sustainability - September
September was one month this year where the topic seemed to fit perfectly into the reality of my life. September was my month focused on sustainable work.
Since early in the month I passed my life coach certification test and became fully certified (yay!), I moved into the second half of The Life Coach School program focused on building my business. I’ve known what direction I want to take this coaching in for a while, but since I was focusing on the certification, I just kind of let the ideas simmer in the background.
The end of August hit though and I was totally overcome with ideas. I spent many nights staying up way past my bedtime, working, writing, planning, iterating, creating, and just being all out excited! It has been a while since I felt that way about a project, and it was really refreshing. I know that not all of life or work will be that way, but it is fun when it is!
September started off with a short mini staycation, a few days off work to spend with my siblings while my parents went away for their 25th anniversary. This was the perfect time for me to buckle down and get a lot of work done.
Even when I went back to work, the trend of intense work continued. I had less time to dedicate, but lots of ideas to act on and tasks to bring to completion.
A lot of the long workdays turned into long work nights and when I would finally head to bed at 11 or 11:30, my brain would still be buzzing with ideas!
I do want to make a caveat here and point out that I put a very big focus on listening to and trusting myself and my intuition. It is a really important skill that I’ve been working on cultivating and I love learning from people like Allie Casazza who really lives it out. I think in many ways, that has been a slight tug against my sustainability focus in many ways.
I want to keep intermittent fasting, and it definitely seems sustainable to me - but I also want the freedom to eat breakfast on weekends or if I’m out with friends, and so I do.
I want to walk and exercise every day, and it definitely seems sustainable to me - but sometimes I’m in the car for 12 hours or it is pouring rain, so I have to improvise, and so I do.
I want to work at a comfortable pace, not pushing ideas, but also getting consistent work done. Sometimes I am so excited and motivated I work for 6 (or 10) hours straight, staying up way past my bedtime, and thus, sacrificing something else that is important to me, (sleep) but it is what I choose to do.
No single choice I make in my life seems like it perfectly sustainable and ultimately, I’ve realized that listening to myself and my body is what is most sustainable for me. Even though that won’t look the same every day. And it doesn’t mean that I don’t have consistent habits, because I do.
Another blogger, podcaster, and coach that I love is Sam Laura Brown. She talks about the idea of consistency being whatever you want it to be - it is such a vague term with no real definition. Going to the dentist twice a year counts as consistency, so why can’t waking up early 5 days a week fall into that category too! I can be a person with a consistent workout routine, even if one week I only work out 5 times, and a few of them are in my house rather than outside.
I have learned the skill of knowing I will do what I say I will do. I know I can and will eat healthy, work out every day, get enough sleep, work on my business, maintain this blog, dedicate time to my relationships, and take action on all of my other priorities. All these things will get done because they are all important to me. But within that, I’m learning to let them flow, to go with my intuition, to make each what I want - even if that doesn’t look the same every day. I let that be okay. In fact, it is more than okay, it is what I want. It is what is sustainable for me.
The choices that I make now are all helping me to build the life that I want. And even if this is a season of maybe a bit “unsustainable” work, it will help make the next season a bit more sustainable. That is what I choose and that is what I want.
Okay, okay, back to work. There are a few things that I did this month, besides letting myself feel into my work, that I think are sustainable choices long term.
One rule of thumb I realized recently is that “8 is not too late.” I realized this over the course of my coaching program because every week my class would end at 7, and I would feel like I wasn’t quite ready to check out and relax for the rest of the evening. I would often write or work on my business for another hour. Even if I stopped working at 8, I still had time to shower, make brownies, watch three or four episodes of a TV show, journal, do the rest of my nightly routine, and still get to bed on time - I know because on one night I did all of those things, although I normally just did a few.
The “8 is not too late” principal helps even if I am working all evening and not coming off of a class. It helps me to keep the evening in perspective, sometimes forcing me to shut down my laptop a bit earlier than I might otherwise, and other times squeezing out a bit more productivity. Either way, it gives my brain enough time to slow down before I head to bed, but also enough time in the evening to get a pretty big project done.
There are certainly times I work past 8, and other nights I don’t work after my day job at all, but it is a good principle that I think will help me to keep work sustainable in the long run.
This month I read Zero Waste: Simple Life Hacks to Drastically Reduce Your Trash. While not specifically related to work, it still offered lots of ideas on how to reduce trash across all areas of my life. For a pretty short book, it was also pretty comprehensive. There was a bit more of a DIY focus than I would prefer - since I would really rather not spend my free time making homemade concoctions, but there are a few things I may try. But even more important, I was inspired to try to cut back even further on the waste in my work and the rest of my life as well.
The sustainable product I purchased for this month is one that definitely helps me with work. I’ve been wearing blue light glasses for quite a long time, but my last pair broke several months ago. I hesitated to get new ones, since now that I was in my sustainability project, I could no longer just go order the same pair off of Amazon as I had done before.
Luckily, with just a bit of research, I found exactly what I needed. Since I don’t wear glasses normally, I can’t just have the blue light protective coating on my regular pair - since I don’t have a regular pair to begin with.
I got my new pair of blue light glasses from Blue Planet Eco-Eyewear - the name speaks for itself. Each pair of glasses the company sells is made from 70% to 100% recycled material and they have diverted thousands of pounds of material from ending up in a landfill.
Blue Planet Eco-Eyewear has built its company on the foundation of giving back to the community and the world. They donate one pair of glasses to someone in need for every pair purchased. So far, the company has donated over 1,000,000 pairs to communities worldwide. In addition, they plant one tree for each pair of glasses purchased through a partnership with Trees For The Future. The Forest Gardens that they create not only benefit the earth, but also the local communities where they are planted by providing sustainable food sources for the people and their animals and wood to use as fuel. They even have the potential to increase the annual income of locals by 400% in four years.
The company also encourages its employees to volunteer each month in their local community. It is amazing to me how the companies that believe in preserving the earth and supporting the people on it take additional so much additional action to go above and beyond the average. Blue Planet Eco-Eyewear is a perfect example of a considerate company promoting what they believe on every level. And I would so much rather support a sustainable company like that than Amazon any day.
As I keep up the craziness that is my work schedule right now, I’m also starting to prepare for next month. The topic is a good one and I’m super excited! I can’t believe there are only a few months left in my sustainability project! It was about this time last year that I knew 2020 was going to be a year focused on sustainability and I can’t believe how much I have learned.
I’ve changed my habits, the products I purchase, my routines, my choices, and ultimately - my life. I’m also starting to think about what to focus on next year… it’ll be here before we know it. I don’t have too many ideas yet, but I’m starting to plan and that’s pretty exciting too.
Until next time,