Verdant Growth: Stretch Goals for 2025
In my last blog post, I covered some of my main goals I want to achieve in the sustainability/Verdant Growth side of my life, but I have a few smaller stretch goals that I’d like to try for as well. These are goals that I thought of as I tried to figure out what I want my goals to be in 2025, and I think it’s not too much to take these all on at once. They’re certainly ones that will make my life happier, healthier, and more connected!
No Amazon.com
Amazon is one of the biggest polluters and enablers of hyper-consumerism in the world. I already try to avoid Amazon as much as I can, but I think that if I try just a little harder, I could probably go a whole year (and maybe the rest of my life!) without it.
Further reduce meat and dairy consumption
As it stands now, although I haven’t done any calculations, I assume that my meat and dairy consumption is down to about 10-15% of what it once was. I have a couple rules for myself that help me in this: if I have a vegetarian/vegan choice at restaurants, that’s what I get. Also, I never use my own money to buy any meat or fish. This means that in the rare cases that I eat meat, it’s just having a bite of someone else’s food (or in the rare case that there is nothing vegetarian/vegan on a menu). While I haven’t knowingly consumed milk in probably 2 years or so (it tends to hide itself in things that I don’t realize), I still eat cheese a handful of times per week. I’ve been starting to feel like it’s time to start all-out banning certain things from my diet, which is a first for me, so I wanted to start with something relatively easy: no processed meats. This is a pretty easy one, I already avoid things like bacon or hot dogs like the plague because of how bad they are for you, but every now and then if there’s nothing else to eat, I’ll eat a little. But no more.
Reduce social media time to less than 1 hour per week
In the past year, partially due to my wanting to give more time to my family and less time to the internet gods, and also just because of all the ridiculous political discourse, I’ve done a pretty good job of weaning myself off of social media. At the time of posting this, I think I still spend about 2 hours a week on social media in the odd moment where I’m bored and just standing in line at a grocery store, or sitting in the car waiting for my daughter to finish school. My strategy is to start carrying around a book – any time I feel the urge to turn on social media, I pick up my book. Let’s try to get to under 1 hour per week.
Create deeper and more meaningful connections with friends and family
After living in Korea for 3 years, Japan for 7, then the pandemic and moving to Hawaii (a state where I know no one), it’s safe to say I let my relationships go a lot more than I should have. These days I communicate regularly with very few friends and family, and when I do, it’s the monotonous “What are you doing these days? How’s work?” kind of conversations that have left my relationships feeling emotionally empty. This year, as I try to lessen social media and fake online relationships, I’m going to replace them with real conversations that are full of love, depth, and meaning. (I have a plan for this, but I don’t want to detail it all here…Let me know if this is something you’re interested in and I’ll do a blog post on it…)
Focus Verdant Growth
Since the start of 2025, I’ve started to think seriously about what I want Verdant Growth to be – What is it’s main message? How am I delivering it? What’s missing? It’s time to shape it into something that people want to engage with. See upcoming blog posts…
Revamp my wardrobe
Way too much of my clothes are clothes I’ve been wearing for 10+ years, and a lot of it has become pretty ratty. A lot of it I don’t even like. It’s just what’s in my closet and so that’s what I wear. Time to find clothes that I love, that last (no more fast fashion – Uniqlo/H&M/etc.), and are made with sustainable materials (no more fossil-fuel based clothes). It’s SO important to me that everyone in the chain of people who made my clothes are paid fairly for their work, even if I have to pay a lot more for it. Less quantity, more quality, more social justice in my clothes.
Connect with the local Hawaiian community
I’ve lived in Hawaii now for 3+ years, and I’ve connected with a few locals through work, but I want to do more. The Hawaiian culture is so rich and had so many traditions that are deeply connected to sustainability. The Hawaiians lived on these small islands for thousands of years without exhausting the resources and respecting the land. We have a lot to learn from them. I have a lot to learn from them. And I can only do that by connecting with them. This year I want to make some more Hawaiian acquaintances and volunteer in the Hawaiian community to help rebuild some of their tradition.
Become more food independent
This one’s a tough one and requires a lot more active work than the others…I don’t currently have a place to grow food, so I’d need to build some planter boxes and start to learn how to grow some vegetables, which would take work and study, but since I currently have a backyard with nothing going on, it would be awesome if I could start to become more food-independent. Oh, I also want to try making natto again (made it once before, and it just came out OK…)! A fantastic vegan source of protein and other amazing vitamins. That’ll make 3 fermented things I can make (kimchi, kombucha being the other two I regularly make)! I’m just going to say right now that this is the challenge I’m most likely to not get to this year.
Who’s ready for 2025?
Do you guys have any new years’ resolutions? Are you doing anything to gain a little more health, happiness, and connection in your life this year? If so, comment down below. I love hearing more ideas for things to challenge yourself to!
