Sustainable You: 8 First Steps to Lasting Change in Business and in Life
Michael Prager
Language: English
Pages: 144
ISBN: 0982672020
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Individuals, companies, nations, entire species — not an entity on the planet couldn't gain from a greater ability to sustain itself.
To judge that thought for yourself, make a list of all those that haven’t achieved sustainability and they will have at least one thing in common: They're all gone. Wouldn't you rather be around, and in position to take full advantage of it?
The key to boosting our “personal sustainability” is to recognize how we connect to those around us — at work, in community, in the world. Even if many don't know it, even if some would deny it, we are in several ways parts of a whole, tying our fates together.
For example, if everyone at work acknowledges and fulfills their role, a success greater than any one person is the certain result. The most reliable way to ensure that happens in your circles is to do your part. Not only will your efforts contribute to a greater whole, but your actions could influence others to do the same. Not doing that can influence in the other direction, too, of course.
The crux of this approach is that healthy self-interest is the only motivation needed to move toward it. If others will benefit, fine, but our goal is no more than to sustain ourselves. Notice that is different from gratifying oneself.
So how does you move toward sustaining yourself? By factoring this question — “Will this choice enhance or hinder my long-term prospects?” — into more of your decisions, even mundane ones such as which products to buy at the market.
That needn’t be your only standard, because life is spiced by spontaneity, enjoyment, and whimsy. But too often, it has been nobody’s standard, and one certainty of our existence is that we experience the outcomes of our choices.
Should you be questioning the morality of self-interest as a guiding principle, fear not. Each one of us who works to sustain ourselves simultaneously makes the world more sustainable, and that’s not coincidental.
We are all connected, we are all parts of the whole.
Austrian Economics in Transition: From Carl Menger to Friedrich Hayek
Complex Economics: Individual and Collective Rationality (The Graz Schumpeter Lectures)
Inside the Economist's Mind: Conversations with Eminent Economists
The Cost of Inequality: Why Economic Equality Is Essential For Recovery
The Wealth of Nations: Books I-III
Saving Social Security: A Balanced Approach (Revised Edition)
In what ways are you aware of yourself as a role model? Cite examples of when your actions have been influenced by someone else’s, both when they were trying (a parent, perhaps) and when they weren’t (the last jerk you encountered in traffic). How does recognizing practically everyone’s ability to influence others change how you want to act?
legitimately on a continuum of how processing transforms the effects of simple, natural substances. “That’s a Lot!” Before I shifted my advocacy outreach from food addiction to sustainable personal change, I found myself a little reluctant to share all the changes I had made for fear I would chase away those who might benefit from my experience. As I conceded at the start of discussing this concept, it’s possible that I would have been chased away had someone done that for me. But with
we want for ourselves, our families, our enterprises? Although the mission is focused, he shares them in a multitude of ways ranging from groups of any size to one-on-one sessions. Each offering is complete as a sole endeavor, but as client needs warrant, combinations of these offerings can work to effect and sustain long-term change. Keynote An interactive presentation with opportunities for customization to client needs, ranging from 30-75 minutes. Seminar/webinar Half-day events
lives? The platinum examples are smoking and obesity. The debate over whether smoking will degrade, then shorten, one’s life is completely over, and yet 800 million earthlings still choose to inhale — even at a cost, in the United States, of more than $5 a pack. Paying through the nose to ruin one’s lungs can only be explained if users don’t think they will experience the obvious result of their choices. I used to be one of those: I smoked cigarettes for 14 years, and have reached dependence on
institution’s 50th anniversary in 1995. The project was born of inspiration, a certain lack of good sense, and many long hours shared with my partner on the project, Richard Sanchez. Partly by luck of timing, it was the first piece ever picked up by the New York Times Syndicate from outside the Times, and it sold to newspapers on three continents, including the Times itself and the hometown Globe. It clinched the best job I ever had. Perhaps eight years later, well after I’d moved from