4 Steps to A Transformed Life

The year is 2021, our earth has been riddled with a horrible virus, our topsoil is leaving our farms faster than we could ever imagine, species are going extinct as fast as well known ice ages and we are working harder and faster than ever to acquire the lifestyle that we have been told we need to obtain since we were little children. How can a society, that doesn’t even have time for its own children, elderly, mentally and physically challenged, and the homeless possibly be able to do anything to save the rest of this planet?

It’s easy. We take one step at a time.

Step 1 – Ask yourself a simple question… Am I conducting my life on my own agenda or someone else’s agenda?

How do you know if you are? Make two columns and write down “Your Agenda” and “Other’s Agenda”. What is under your Agenda? Do you want to make more money or do you want to play with your kids more? Do you want a bigger house and a huge manicured yard or would prefer to have a house that is smaller, could possibly go where you want it to go, and all that extra square footage would be a land of beauty with a path for you to explore along?

Then, stop and take a deep breath, ask yourself, “What do I see in these columns?” I would dare to guess that you would see that your life reflects more of other people’s agendas.

Step 2 – Cut the items that are on the “Other’s Agenda”. No, you do not have to sell everything and give it all to the poor. Start making your assets work for you, by adding housing to your community through adding a mother-in-law in your basement, renting out a room in the main area of your home, renting out your home through airbnb when you are away and/or adding a tiny home on wheels into your back or side yard.

As well, spend more time in your garden, enjoying nature. Add plants and trees that benefit birds, butterflies, and other living creatures. Add birdhouses, insect houses, leave plants and trees to go dormant with their summer growth to give room for food and habitat for insects, amphibians, and other creatures. Next, get rid of that darn lawn and plant clover or wild strawberries add more color, absorption, food, and beauty to that once-neglected yard.

Ask your boss if you can telecommute. It will save the company a huge amount of money if you stayed home. They could probably even afford to give you a raise for the amount of money they would save if you worked from home. They would not have to pay for the square footage that you occupied, the water you consumed, the electricity you need for your computer, lights, copier, printer, heat, air conditioning. They wouldn’t have to pay insurance on more square footage. They wouldn’t have to purchase computers, desks, chairs, printers, copiers, mainframes, phones, paper, pens, toilet paper, beer, coffee, cups, decor. They wouldn’t have to have as many assistants, cleaners, managers, company cars, accountants, etc. On top of all of that, even though you might have just a smidge more electrical or water costs and you might have to purchase your own laptop, you would save a huge amount of money on that car that you no longer need. No more car payment, car insurance, parking costs, registration fees, and maintenance fees. No more long hours of commuting fighting traffic, being away from family, and no more potential danger from being on the road. You would have a great more time with your family, more flexibility, more time to do what you would like to do from your agenda list. How would you like to spend potentially an extra 500 hours, or more, a year from just the saved commuting alone?

As well, do you really want to keep trekking your children to every sport, every season, to school every day, to keep working even more hours to get your child the latest and greatest of whatever the toy or electronic industry has told your child to want this season? Instead, take your children out of the government-run school they are in, give them a hug and teach them what is important. Teach them how to be together with their family, how to care for themselves, others, and this planet. Take time to walk a trail, visit a beach, help others, spend time together, learn something new. As well, help them to chose and make friends, how to find learning everywhere they go, how to learn from everyday life.

I could quote a few other items that could be accomplished in Step 2, but Step 3 is beckoning.

 Step 3 – Don’t worry about what others will say or think. Yes, you will strangely start to feel like the black sheep of the family and the world around you. But, if you hold to your guns, people will eventually come back to you and say that they are proud of you, ask you how to do what you are doing and tell you that they have now started doing the things that you are doing. Just hold to your guns. Maybe write down the process. I wish I had. It would have been very amusing and encouraging to review the progression.

Step 4 – Continue to review and potentially rewrite your agenda list. It is amazing. As you take this new journey, you will find that your opinion, focus and passion will shift. You will learn new things, discard old things and develop an enthusiasm for what your actions can do for you, your family, your community and your earth.

We all have been around long enough to know what will happen if we purchase organic foods, drive less, have smaller houses, purchase fewer things, and don’t use petroleum products. So, just start with a list and see how it changes your horizon. One step at a time. Change for you. Change for your earth. One step at a time. As you practice, as you get more familiar, that one step will become a whole marathon. A marathon that will take you to more places than you can imagine and save you and the planet in the process. One step at a time.

If I can do it, so can you.

One step at a time.