The ultimate eco-friendly lifestyle

Increasing numbers of people aspire to make life choices that preserve and restore natural environments. Some people dream of more sustainable living practices and other people take action to make it happen.  Which life choices would create your ultimate eco-friendly lifestyles? Which habits and practices would you like to change?

In various countries, governments offer financial incentives such as rebates and tax breaks, to convert to more economical uses of energy and to conserve resources. How much solar power and wind energy are used in your local area? Do you use economical cycles and energy-conserving applicances? If you wish to use energy more wisely, build or even remodel your home, you may have more options than you realized.  Consider these ideas and how you feel about them:

1. If you live in a place that experiences cold climates, in winter, reduce thermostats to 68 degrees or below. Reduce to 55 degrees or below before sleep and before you go to work. (As you lower thermostat in winter, you'll save up to 5% heat costs per degree)
2. Turn off lights, electrical devices when not in use. If you live in a country with switches on outlets (like Australia), turn off energy flow when not using socket. Electricity generated by fossil fuels for a single home can emit more carbon dioxide into the air than 2 average cars!
3. Avoid using heavy devices washers, dryers, and electric ovens during peak energy demand times. Wherever possible, choose toilets that use less water per flush, select the most economical appliance cycles, energy efficient shower heads, devices that use less energy. 
4. Close shades and blinds at night to reduce heat loss through windows. This practice also will also apply for warm climates to keep cool air in-house and extreme heat out (day/night).  
5. Choose products (like soap) that require less water and buy energy-efficient lightbulbs.
6. Set computers, monitors, printers, copiers, faxes and other office equipment to their energy saving feature and turn them off at the end of each day. Do two-sided copies too.
7. Decide to walk, take public transport or ride a bike to work.  Leave your car at home.
8. Grow your own vegetables. Eat more locally-produced foods in season to lower transport costs. Recognize when you eat food that is shipped in, this increases energy consumption.
9. Use more recycled products and contribute to local recycling programs. If your home or office doesn't have such a thing, why not take initiatives to start one in your area?  
10. Compost your leftover organic food products and develop your own richer garden soil.  You'll help insects and the air while you also care for our planet.

Righteousness could kill you

You may know people who hold rigid beliefs.  You know, they say things like, "do it my way or take the highway!"  Morals will still evolve and change, even if you refuse to consciously see this. People have been known to change their morals or how they apply their beliefs, to suit their situation, especially if they have hidden motives.  Some people say one thing and do another. Since morals are only expressed beliefs, this would make people hypocrites if they behave in ways inconsistent with their beliefs. What would cause these kinds of people to be selectively blind?

Consider that most people hold the basic belief that it's in their interest to be honest.  This is generally understood to be good business practice. Treat your clients well, offer them value in products and services, and they will more likely become returning clients. 

What about the businessman who tells customers he will produce their products on time, at good value, then doesn't do this and cheats clients out of their commissions and other expected services? Through word of mouth, you would think the company reputation would sink and the businessman would lose clients. This cyclical process may take time, but it happens because we attract the same treatment from others that we dish out. Ever hear the phrase, "what goes around, comes around?" 

What about the man who chooses not to pay an employee as a way to punish a business partner for not permitting him to have his own way? In highly-evolved societies, people simply decide to act based on whether they think their efforts or tantrums work or not to get their desired ends. People who hold unresolved feelings create their own logic in other settings. They feel big, but look small.

If your morals shift, and you refuse to admit it and change your ways, you become righteous. If during your life, someone cheated on you and made you feel bad, thinking you can just cheat your clients, peers or employees, isn't an acceptable way to think or even the score. This kind of revenge isn't justice, its more likely the result of misplaced anger and other unresolved emotions brewing or ready to explode.  This kind of righteousness could kill you emotionally, financially or in ways you don't expect. You lose out, period. Nothing to gain, and much to lose. 

Admitting the crux of the matter would mean you can rise above self-righteousness. Do not live today based on past experiences. Learn anything in your possession isn't really a possession.  Ownership of money or things or the view you can control people is a temporary illusion.  

People so easily forget "right" and "wrong" ways of behaving don't exist.  The only things qualified as such depend on whether your efforts to influence how situations unfold produce your desired outcome.  When you consider a feeling or result or event is wrong, this means you didn't get to be, do, or have what you desired.  Deciding what is acceptable or unacceptable simply contributes to or takes away from your sense of constructed happiness. Don't worry. Start again. Life goes on.

Not so miserable an existence

The "miserable existence" model of retirement emerged during the 1940s and 1950s from the reality of the Great Depression. This traditional vision defined retirement as representing a single "event" with a target date, typically around age 65, in which a person suddenly leaves full-time employment (income stops) and adapts to lack of employment (living solely on pension + savings).

This original idea of retirement evolved when work was mostly physical, and the body wore out. Historically, retirement was a brief period of doing very little and experiencing a rapid decline in health. It was a time when retirees were "too sick to work, yet still too healthy to die."

Since the 1980s, retirement has been perceived as "not so miserable an existence". Current retirees live (and future retirees will live) a different retirement from their ancestors. People already follow different patterns; you may know people who leave their workplace earlier, or later, evolve to slow down and work only part-time, find new work out of necessity, redefine meaningful work in new areas or leave original employment, consult and then return. The world is your oyster. Take up the projects you had postponed, learn a skill you have always dreamed about. 

For example, you might withdraw retirement funds and go to the Peace Corps for three years in your 40s or 50s with the idea you’ll work until age 75 as a trade-off. Doctors will donate their time and expertise to work for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like “Doctors without borders.” Some people borrow from retirement savings to invest and pay themselves back with interest instead of bank lenders or loan companies. Such investors work longer to pay themselves back. 

Maybe you know experienced people may be secunded from their places of employment for short-term consultant projects?  These experts temporarily suspend their other roles, accept reduced  pensions, or have opportunities to make up time in original workplace later. Some people will retire completely from original workplaces and become consultants to government and/ or industry in their own countries or internationally. DIscover your options. You may find some new ones.

Yet, other people follow the traditional model, work until they reach legislated retirement age, then leave work for good. Still other people can’t afford to retire at any age and must find new work, take odd jobs or start a business to generate money to pay the bills. Still other people love work so much they prefer to continue as long as they’re physically and mentally able to do so.

Financial planning evolves to factor in these many visions of retirement. Where retirement planning strategy emerged to plan prudently to ensure people could survive, people increasingly desire more than simply to have enough money to eat, pay for shelter and any necessary medical care. They often postpone luxuries like travel, purchasing "extras," or doing major renovations until retirement.

Fundamentally, on one level, the modern meaning of retirement may be understood as financial freedom, or the ability to subsist in desirable ways without working and to have enough time available to do what you choose. Investments and interest from savings would generate a passive income to provide for ‘retirement’ activities. Successful business people and lottery winners or entertainers have been known to retire young. Although they move beyond original pursuits, they have also been known to create foundations, charities, new businesses and other meaningful pursuits to enrich their existence and others. In this way, retirement offers new ways to enjoy life.

In addition, retirement can also mean an imposed settlement package from a workplace or employer because of age limit or downsizing. Retirement is no longer a one-time experience based solely on age. It is also a mindset expecting change, an appreciation for new work at any age.

Without a doubt, increasing longevity demands new retirement ideas.  Where age 65 used to be seen as ‘late-in-life,’ it’s now more often mid-life.  Since you may be around for a while yet, how will you define your identity over and above what you used to do? A change of scenery can be good. Consider moving city to country. Embrace newness. Your mindset is key to the next phase of your life.

Meaningful life transitions

Many people struggle to accept and adapt to life changes and uncertainty. You may know people who dwell on what they can’t grasp or control, rather than what they do know and can control. Even indoor and outdoor settings may be discouraging or get out of hand. Are you affected at all? How might you react to make your life transitions more meaningful?

No matter what your age or background, your attitude about change and transition will touch on;

1) your personal life and relationships

2) job or career

3) finances

4) health and well-being

5) spiritual pursuits

As you identify if you're in early, mid- or late career, or retirement, the answers to the above sections will vary. Your health needs and priorities change with time and circumstances.  You may sense that feeling anxious or discouraged in one area of life negatively impacts other areas. But how often do you realize it? Which steps can you take to gain more focus and understanding to help clarify and solve matters before they rise out of control? Positive thinking  and focusing on goal-setting at any life phase has potential to enable you to experience a more meaningful life.

You can learn to recognize and localize problems, and then consider strategies to help you make smoother transitions in different areas of your life. Start by getting-to-know yourself better. The result is you’re better able to see how areas of your life relate and where you feel comfortable.

• On a personal level: relationships are rarely unchanging. Everyone evolves with time. Whether its family, friends or co-workers, it’s useful to get to know reasons why people change around us and also how and why we react to these changes. Personal goal-setting includes examining the past, present and future aims for varied relationships, from friendships, between parents and children to connections between intimate partners.
• On a professional level: settling into a position with life-long benefits is often a thing of the past. Young people explore jobs and careers within turbulent global markets. Mid- and senior career professionals are increasingly restless and can be forced to leave during downsizing. Even many traditional careers no longer have the predictability and stability they once did. More people experience multiple job transitions. There may be no single 'right fit.'  As people age and approach or live retirement, they also wonder what they should do next in life, and how to define new kinds of fulfillment. Professional goal-setting examines and plans pursuits which reveal that not all meaningful work will earn money. Some gives it away. 
• On a financial level: consider your basic needs and expectations for whatever phase of life you live now and what you imagine you will need for a comfortable retirement. Do you have employee benefits? pension options? are you self-supporting? make voluntary RRSP or superannuation contributions? Reflect on personal budgets, expenses, investments and savings plans.  Financial goal-setting involves evaluating what you have and what you aspire toward.
• On a health & well-being level: how do you feel and where would you like to be? We could all benefit from examining our eating, exercise and lerisure patterns and habits. Is there anything in your life choices that you suspect could be healthier? You may choose to go further than a self-evaluation. Begin by deciding if there's anything you'd like to change. The phrases, "you are what you eat," "you're only as old as you feel" may accurately reflect how you treat your body.  Health & well being goal-setting can be further broken down again.  
• On a spiritual level: your understanding of 'Higher Forces' influences the your chosen morals, ethics and also behavioural standards devised by Earthly societies.  That includes those civilisations which profess no belief in God.  We each decide what is acceptable or unacceptable in a given circumstance and period of our lives.  Our thoughts decide what we're trying to be, do and have. Spiritual goal-setting is a branch with religious and non-religious options to discover more intimate sides of yourself, your feelings and sense of direction.

Non-traditional pursuits begin with you

So many people today are struggling to find rewarding pursuits. It’s rarer now that people will settle into one position in one place for life. The thing is, everyone wasn't destined to follow traditional routes. You may not feel drawn to what other people do. You might have even tried some of these or other options already, sensed it wasn't for you and wondered what else was out there. Don't despair! It's never too late to exert influence on the evolution of your job or career. 

Ask yourself these preliminary questions: 

• What’s do you think is the problem with what you do now?
• How would you describe your talents and skills?
• Which tasks would you like to perform?
• Where do you imagine yourself working? How might you research jobs that would suit you?
• When would you plan to make the professional move?

• Why aren't you taking steps to get there?

As you learn to isolate your interests and identify your particular abilities, you will be surprised at what kinds of job options you will discover. Magicians, circus acrobats and unique artists may not be traditional careers, and yet, individuals in these and other disciplines can refine their dreams.

You may have heard of a businessman who gave up his management position to take up playing the jazz sax in a musical band.  What about the 2007 Australian Idol, Damien Leith, who is a pharmacist now turned international singer? Rock singers have moved on to work as alternative television producers. Bodybuilders have been known to follow film careers.   Jim Henson didn't grow up knowing he would become a well-known puppeteer. Mother Teresa wasn't born a nun.  Steve Irwin evolved into a zookeeper of dangerous animals.  Many other options exist as well.

Consider what is in your heart and listen to your innermost desires.   If money and circumstances were no object, what would you choose? As you learn to recognize what activities boost your energy level, you can shape these into part of a dream job.  Talk to people about your ideas. Find people who will support and encourage you. Together, you can figure out how to make things happen.