Eco-friendly Role Models
Aktualisiert: 17. Jan. 2022
Three weeks ago I started blogging about mobility, sustainability and mindset. The fast development technical-wise and the heated debate, led by people with various motives, currently keeps me on my toes. My goal, by blogging about learnings, ideas and my point of view, was to inspire others and learn more myself. Reading the comments on my first article on why you should think of ditching the plane for the train - if possible - I learned a lot about humankind and why problems, even life-threatening ones, aren‘t solved easily.
When confronted with the necessity to change their behavior, or even just a suggestion on how to do things differently, people tend to search for excuses. Excuses on how a recommendation is great in general, yet does not work in their very specific case, because this or that gets in the way.
Challenge the Status Quo
Change is hard and generally seen as bad. The fear of the unknown, the new, is based in our genes as a life-saving measure. Historically speaking, we never had such a secure surrounding. We never had quite so many possibilities to create and shape our life. Yet all we tend to do is complaining. Complaining about things that could change our life for the better, if we just gave them a fair chance and time. The worst that could happen is nothing, still we tend to leave everything like it is.
It’s a fact, that everything around us is changing. Globalization and digitization are improving our lifes everyday, with inventions coming up faster than ever. If we never went with the unknown, we wouldn’t have the internet, cars or portable mini brains in our pockets. Those inventions were and still are great, yet they’re not done. We need to challenge the status quo continuously and think of new ways of communication or transportation, we need to question anything and everything.
„It‘s no longer just about what is technologically possible, we need to think further and see what impact we have on the environment and society.“
(Hildegard Wortmann, Boardmember Audi at Bits and Pretzels 2019).
If you can see it, you can be it
Leaving the familiar paths can be quite difficult and even frightening, as we don't know how things will turn out. It may be hard to picture ourselves mastering something, if nobody has done it before. We've always learned through observation and immitation, so having a role model helps achieving our goals.
If we can see how others changed their life or just a certain behaviour, it's way easier to adapt. In the following weeks I will try to find out how and why others changed their mind on mobility or sustainability and what they did to live more eco-concious. Please also feel free to share your experiences with me. Let's not settle with our excuses!