My 3 Pillars of Sustainability
As a blogger, podcast host, and attempted influencer, I spend a lot of time thinking about sustainability, but also how to recruit more people to the cause of living a life that is better for you and better for the planet. “Save the Planet” works great on people whose values are to help wildlife or preserve natural spaces (people like me!), but it has failed to drive the vast majority of people to stand up and demand change in society to do better for the big blue ball we call home (also very notably, the source of all our food, water, and resources).
As sad as I find it, most people just don’t have the time of day to care about the big blue ball we call home. Strangely, as a society, we do have plenty of time to watch videos of kids consuming a huge overdose of Benadryl to hallucinate or choking themselves until they blackout (Yes, both of these were real internet video challenges people were doing and got a lot of people seriously injured and/or dead), but that is maybe a talk for another day. So I find myself asking…”What DO people care about? What motivates people to actually get away from their screens and out in the world to change it for the better?” Sustainability itself doesn’t seem to be it (at least not in the way we currently present it).
And yet we find ourselves with a society that is more depressed than ever.
We find ourselves in a society that is as obese and unhealthy as we’ve ever been.
And we find ourselves in a society that has the highest feelings of loneliness (especially among young people) in human history.
Our values have taken an awful turn for the worse
What we value as a culture is no longer friendship, it’s ‘Like’s on Instagram and TikTok.
We no longer value the reward of having taken our time to produce quality results, and instead value quick and easy convenience, whether it be in the food we eat, the time we spend with those we love, or even our hobbies.
Instead of having favorite jackets that we’ve owned for years and love like it’s a part of who we are, we want to buy the newest 5-minute fashion fad, which we throw away after only wearing once or twice.
Instead of finding foods that nourish our minds and bodies, we want to eat the biggest cheeseburger we can find (so we can post it on Instagram) because if you can eat it all, it’s free.
Instead of taking the time to explore the wonder of nature, we take time to explore the newest virtual real estate on the internet.
It’s time to re-explore our values and discover what is truly meaningful
We now live in a society that values convenience, material goods, and instant-gratification, because that’s what mainstream media and corporations have sold us. They’ve told us if we’re just a little thinner, we’ll have a chance with that boy or girl we want. They’ve told us that if we own the hottest car, we’re going to be respected. They’ve told us that if we get the newest, fastest iPhone, we will be popular. None of these things will make your life feel complete or meaningful.
As President Obama once said, “We live in…a culture that too often tells us our principle goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained. A culture where those in power too often encourage these selfish impulses.”
And we’re now the unhealthiest and loneliest society…And we wonder why we’re unhappy!
The 3 Pillars of a Meaningful Life
As I walk along my own path to discovering more sustainable ways of living, I’ve discovered that many of the actions that I’m able to sustain (ha.) improve my life in three key aspects.
I propose to you that there are 3 values you can focus on to fix everything.
I propose to you that if everyone in the world prioritized these 3 values, our lives would become longer, we would have more life satisfaction, and we would discover relationships that give meaning to our lives.
I propose to you that they are simple, and though the changes that follow are not easy, they are guaranteed to improve your life.
The 3 pillars of a meaningful life are…
Health, Happiness, and Connection
Seem obvious? Maybe! But give me a chance here.
Health, happiness, and connection are 3 lenses you can use to evaluate all the behaviors in your life. Look at everything you do and think…Does doing this contribute to health, happiness, or connection? I’ll wager that if you spend some time really thinking about it, you’ll find that many don’t contribute to any!
Over my next few blog posts, I wanted to spend some time pondering each of these lenses individually and examine how health, happiness, and connection are necessary for a quality, meaningful life and how each are deeply connected to each other. I’ve found that the more I align my life with one that is happy, healthy, and connected, the more I find meaning and life satisfaction. And I think you can too.
This is because health, happiness, and connection are universal. We all want to do things that make us happy – like “I love my life” happy, not just “a day at Disneyland” happy. No matter who you are, a healthier life will make you feel better and increase your happiness and connection. Likewise, the more you add connection to your life (whether it be to friends, family, animals, or the planet), I think you will find your happiness and health increase as well! Each of these elements support and augment each other, which is why I am convinced that the set of 3 is vital for a meaningful life.
Over the next few blog posts, I plan to explore and think about each one of these elements in depth, and I hope you’ll subscribe and come back for those posts, because I’d love your input! I’ve been thinking a lot about these “3 pillars” of a quality life, and I’d love to hear your input on what you think. Are there others that are equally as important? Are any of these 3 pillars not as important as I think they are? Is this whole post just a big “DUH!” (I thought about this question a lot, but examining American culture in particular, this seems not to be the case)? Let me know in the comments or reach out to me directly! I’d love to chat more on this.
Hope you all tune back in for the follow-ups! Thanks for reading!
“As sad as I find it, most people just don’t have the time of day to care about the big blue ball we call home.”
Since I don’t live sustainably, I would consider myself one of the people you describe as not caring, but I do care. It’s just hard to live sustainably in a culture that doesn’t reward it. The result: I compromise my values sometimes, more than I’d like. If you think it means I don’t care, I feel misunderstood.
As far as I can tell, the way I feel and act applies to nearly everyone, including the CEO of Exxon or whomever people blame for environmental problems they also contribute to.
You chose examples of unsustainable activities around clothes and food that may not apply to you, but unless you live sustainably in all parts of life (some humans do, and nearly all did for 250,000 years), what about the ones where you compromise? Do you live sustainably? If so, please help me live more sustainably too. If not, should we conclude you don’t care either?
I ask because I find empathy and compassion help lead people to live more by their values and saying people don’t care seems the opposite of empathy and compassion. If two people both compromise, why should A conclude B doesn’t care? What if A makes the effort to understand B better?
Hi Josh,
Thanks for your response which always gives me alternative views to ponder. I think you have a point in that my wording was a little too hand-wavey and imprecise in how I characterized the current state of culture. In my attempt to describe the current state of affairs in a way that is emotionally charged and engaging I might have been a bit too flippant and overgeneralized. I hope that what people get from this post is less about whether or not people care about the planet, but more that our values have shifted in a way that is unhealthy, not just for the planet, but for ourselves, and that the result has led us too a world where far too many are unhappy, unhealthy, and disconnected. I know for a fact that I don’t live sustainably, and don’t pretend to. What I’ve learned in my years of trying to find ways to live more sustainably is that I was doing it backwards. I was trying to find sustainable things to do first. Now, I’ve found that focusing on health, happiness, and connection helps me to find meaning and purpose in life and inevitably leads to more sustainable living as well. From many of your blog posts, I know that this is not unique to me and, probably to even a deeper level than I, you have found the bonds between happiness, health, connection, and sustainability too.