What to do when trying to go green doesn't take hold in your life

Every now and again, I hear from frustrated eco-friendly people who are trying to change their daily habits and install green changes within their lifestyle.  They’re frustrated that the habits don’t seem to change and take hold as fast as they want or thought they would, that the new ways of life aren’t working the way they want them to.  They tend to get down on themselves when they catch themselves doing something not eco-friendly.

The kneejerk rejection is always the same:  Forgot it!  I can’t do this!  Go back to the old ways of how I used to live, not needing to be careful to being green!  Enough with this nonsense!  The new habits didn’t work, I need the old way of reacting to things.

This is an age-old struggle everyone has with changing old habits.  But the good news is that we can all have the power of being in charge of at least one thing:  what we do.  In this sense, we are strong enough to have the motivation and determination to keep ourselves in check with the little things in our life that we have the power to change.  There are many things in our lives that we cannot change, however this is one of the biggest issues for future generations that we do have the power to help change and be proud that we were a part of it. 

From the start, you have to choose a path and stick with it.  Whether it is being on the path of remembering to recycle or sort our items when throwing things away to purchasing carbon offsets to help offset our own carbon footprint, we all can do something to help.  Old habits are hard to change, but once they do you will have new eco-friendly habits formed in their place.  Keep up the hard work and keep going with those changes in your daily habits!

Don’t get stuck in the middle.  It’s painful.  When the new habits don’t work right off the bat, don’t give up – do the new habits MORE and BETTER.  You’re prepared…just embrace it in your life and soon you’ll notice a change in your lifestyle that’s there for good.  Here’s to 2009 with new, better, eco-friendly green habits!