I’d Like to Save the Planet…But I’m Too (insert favorite excuse here)

Why is it that most people seem to lack the motivation or the willingness to make lasting positive changes to their lifestyles when it comes to their health, career, relationships or the environment?

We see and hear the urgency of needing to deal with climate change on the news all the time. We know we need to start doing something about it. Just…not today. We’re too busy. Something else came up. We’re too tired. We’ve got too much to think about already.

Are we really too busy in our lives to make the necessary and positive changes in our lives to deal with reducing our environmental impact? Is recycling, or turning down the heat, or unplugging idle appliances really that much of a big time-sucking activity? Is this really the reason why, despite knowing what they should do, most people fail to make those wanted behavior changes because of something intrinsically psychological?

I recently heard a study that says that as children, we are told in a million different ways how we can’t get what we want. This feeling that “eh…we’re never ever going to get what we REALLY want anyway, so why even try?” spills over into adulthood, and it is the reason why so many people tend toward complacency in their lives. They lack the motivation and gumption to make lasting behavior changes, even when they know it’s something important, necessary, or even life-saving. For example, changing our world view and habits in order to reduce our carbon footprint and stop the world from spiraling into mass extinction.

We feel like we’re probably not going to get what we want anyway (a more sustainable world), so why even try? Instead we go along with our habitual patterns because trying to change anything in our lives is soooo…hard.

But that can’t be the answer. We can’t simply excuse our lack of action by whining about how “it’s too hard!” and going about business as usual as the world goes up in flames. There has to be a secret to how we can motivate ourselves. Afterall, many people have found that secret and are able to make huge changes in their personal life. Don’t you wonder how they do it?

All of us actually motivate ourselves in two different ways.

Either we run toward something we want, or we run away from some kind of pain or discomfort we want to avoid.

If we can determine which one of these we tend to do more often, it can be the key to self-motivation and behavior change. If you tell yourself all the time that you hate your job, and need to quit, but you don’t know what else you want to do, then you may be a run-away type of person. If you keep daydreaming of the kind of business you’ll own or the kind of job you want to land someday, you’re probably more of the toward-something kind of person.

Now let’s come back around to the topic of developing pro-environmental routines or behaviors. You see the many ways you could probably change your behavior in order to lessen your carbon footprint. You just have a hard time sticking to anything and motivating yourself for real change. Let’s use something simple as an example – like recycling.

You know you should recycle. However, every time you have that can or bottle in your hand you just plain forget to put it into a separate container and you just throw it in the trash instead. Maybe you know you have to order special bins from your waste management company, but you keep “forgetting” to call them to order the bins. Maybe you think that you don’t throw out that many plastics and cans so it’d be a waste of time and effort to separate your trash. Whatever the reason, you just haven’t gotten on board with recycling like you know you should.

Let’s further assume that you’re a person who is usually motivated by running away from pain or discomfort. In this situation, you have a hard time motivating yourself because there is no pain that is immediate enough to motivate you. Sure, it’s the pain of future global disaster, but it’s hard for you to make that connection when that can is in your hand and your favorite TV show is about to start. What you need is a more immediate threat of pain or discomfort, so your motivating factor changes.

Here’s how a run-away-from motivated person might restructure their goal of recycling:

1. Tell a friend you intend to call the trash company to order the recycling bins today. Tell them to ask you at the end of the day if you did it, and if you haven’t done it, you’ll pay for their lunch tomorrow. This motivates you to do it because you’ll want to avoid the pain of having to dish out cash if you forget to make the call.

2. Tell your kids or spouse to count the number of cans or bottles you’ve thrown into the regular trash, and that you’ll put a quarter in a piggy bank for every one you’ve absent-mindedly or lazily thrown away. The piggy bank can then be used to buy something that the kids want – so everyone is motivated to “police” you.

3. Develop a path of least resistance. If you want to make it easier to remember to recycle your plastics and cans, you have to find a way to the path of least resistance. Don’t put the recycling bins in the garage because that means you’ll have to make a special effort in order to stick to your goal. Put them where your trash can is now, and put the trash can in the garage instead. Once you begin to develop a routine, introduce the trash can back in the kitchen alongside the recycle bin, if possible, and so forth.

While most of us know that we need to make big and lasting changes that go beyond merely recycling in order to save our environment and ensure a healthier planet for our children, I used this as an example in order to simplify this concept. If you want to use your car less and ride your bicycle more, park your car down the street instead of in your garage for a week and park your bicycle in its place in the garage. It will get you out of automatic thinking and start the path to healthier, more mindful behaviors.