True sustainability leaves no footprint.
The constant yearning for more, through novelty - new 'things', more 'stuff', 'updated versions of perfectly functional items - is incompatible with a sustainable future.
I remember, at a school presentation when I was a kid, Richmond great, and AFL legend Tommy Hafey talking about his weight set at home - its old, it's got rust on it, but 20 kilos is still 20 kilos even if it doesn't look that flash.
There was very little novelty in Tommy's training routine - the same running, push-ups, sit-ups and swimming every day - and he was a formidable physical presence right up until the end.
Novelty, short-termism, quick fixes, dissatisfaction, comparison, hype, short-cuts, hacks - a myth of progress through accumulation and consuming - these things cannot co-exist with sustainability in a meaningful way.
Sustainability leaves no footprint. It is finding beauty, utility and appreciation in the things around us, and the things we already have. Sustainability is sharing, passing things on - both material and immaterial.
Novelty and sustainability are not compatible.
Share love and appreciation - share connection and care - share respect and understanding- share gratitude and avenues to contribution, community and agency.. and we no longer have a need to surround ourselves with novel distractions to fill the gaps in our basic social-human needs.
Share your clothes, your meals and your car. Walk more, talk more in person, be still more often and appreciate the air we breathe and the beauty that's all around us - and we won't need so many grand, expensive, short, unsustainable trips away to new places.
The pandemic has shown that we can survive with less travel, less driving, less shopping, less consuming, less novelty - but we can't survive without each other, without the planet and without humans. We can learn the lessons now and work with them, or we can ignore those lessons until they come back, bigger and with more severity, to teach us again later.
Hug your mates.
Tell people you love them.
Listen to the birds and the wind in the trees.
Take a minute to smell the rain.
Wear those clothes again,
and train with rusty weights.
Lots of Love - Josh
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Learning and Development professional ➜ Highly Experienced L&D Leader ✔ National Training Programme Manager ✔ Performance Management ✔ Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) ✔ CPD Leader and Strategist ✔
4yWe have an ideal moment in society to assess our consumerism, materialism, and relationship with each other. When I look back through my memories it is the presence of other people that I recall. Sand castles on the beach. Playing in woods. Family dinner. It’s a simple lesson of what is important and fulfilling for me. A hint of what I can pursue more of to be authentically content or happy.